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Consequences of Kampala: The U.S. and the International Criminal Court

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Date and time
Thursday, November 11, 2010

Donald Ferencz, executive director of the Planethood Foundation, and Case Western Reserve University School of Law Professor Michael Scharf participated as NGO (non-governmental organization) delegates at the International Criminal Court Assembly of States Parties Review Conference in Kampala, Uganda in June 2010. At the Review Conference in Kampala, the 3,000 delegates agreed to a complicated formula to amend the International Court's Statute to add the crime of aggression to its jurisdiction. The formula had its origins in part in a 2008 Experts Meeting that Mr. Ferencz and Prof. Scharf co-sponsored at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, "The ICC and the Crime of Aggression." Mr. Ferencz and Prof. Scharf explain the negotiating history and meaning of the "Crime of Aggression" Amendment to the ICC's Statute, and describe its likely consequences for the United States and its allies.

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Donald M. Ferencz is an attorney and the Executive Director of The Planethood Foundation, a small private foundation “educating to replace the law of force with the force of law.” He was born in 1952 in Nuremberg, Germany, where his father, Ben Ferencz, had served as the Chief Prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen Trial as part of the Subsequent Proceedings at Nuremberg. After studying at the Canadian Peace Research Institute and graduating Colgate University with a B.A. in Peace Studies, Don Ferencz pursued a Master’s Degree in Education, thereafter teaching elementary school for five years before going on to obtain both J.D. and M.B.A. degrees at Pace University in New York. While in law school, he interned at both the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enforcement Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, assisting in the prosecution of “white collar” criminals. But Mr. Ferencz saw the other side of the coin as well: incident to his work as a student editor on the Law Review, he played a critical role in obtaining dismissal by the New York Court of Appeals of a criminal conviction, which dismissal was premised on a legal theory he developed himself based on original research which had been previously overlooked by defense counsel in the case. Upon completing his legal studies, Mr. Ferencz pursued a commercial career for over two decades, working as a senior tax executive at a number of U.S.-based multinational public companies, and taught briefly as an adjunct professor of law at Pace Law School, where he later helped to initiate an international ICC Moot Court Competition. In 1996, he and his father established The Planethood Foundation, for which he now works on a full-time basis, helping to educate around the need for strengthening the rule of law in international relations. In addition, Don Ferencz participated directly as part of the NGO delegation to the ICC Assembly of States Parties Working Group on the Crime of Aggression (including attending the recent ICC review conference in Kampala, Uganda), and has written and lectured on the need to help deter aggression through the rule of law. He currently resides in the U.K.
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Michael Scharf is the John Deaver Drinko - Baker & Hostetler Professor of Law, and Director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center, at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. In February 2005, Scharf and the Public International Law and Policy Group, a Non-Governmental Organization he co-founded and directs, were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by six governments and the Prosecutor of an International Criminal Tribunal for the work they have done to help in the prosecution of major war criminals, such as Slobodan Milosevic, Charles Taylor, and Saddam Hussein. During the first Bush and Clinton Administrations, Scharf served in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State, where he held the positions of Attorney-Adviser for Law Enforcement and Intelligence, Attorney-Adviser for United Nations Affairs, and delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. In 1993, he was awarded the State Department's Meritorious Honor Award "in recognition of superb performance and exemplary leadership" in relation to his role in the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. A graduate of Duke University School of Law (Order of the Coif and High Honors), and judicial clerk to Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat on the Eleventh Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, Scharf is the author of over seventy scholarly articles and thirteen books, including Balkan Justice, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998, The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which was awarded the American Society of International Law's Certificate of Merit for the Outstanding book in International Law in 1999, Peace with Justice, which won the International Association of Penal Law Book of the Year Award for 2003, and Enemy of the State, which won the International Association of Penal Law Book of the Year Award for 2009. Scharf's most recent book is Shaping Foreign Policy in Times of Crisis (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Scharf has also testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Armed Services Committee; and his Op Eds have been published by the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and International Herald Tribune. Recipient of the Case Western Reserve University School of Law Alumni Association's 2005 "Distinguished Teacher Award" and Ohio Magazine's 2007 "Excellence in Education Award," Scharf teaches International Law, International Criminal Law, the Law of International Organizations, and the War Crimes Research Lab which provides research assistance to five international tribunals.
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Milena Sterio teaches International Law and the International War Crimes seminar. She has published extensively in the areas of international law, international criminal law, and the law of the seas (piracy), and her latest articles will be published by the American University Law Review, the Fordham Journal of International Law, and the Minnesota Journal of International Law. She has lectured on these topics at various law schools in the United States, as well as larger conferences, such as the American Society of International Law Annual Meeting and the AALS Annual Meeting. Prior to becoming a law professor, Milena Sterio was an associate at the international law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, in its New York and Paris offices, where she practiced international litigation and arbitration. She was also an adjunct professor at Cornell Law School, where she taught the International War Crimes seminar. Milena Sterio holds a J.D., *magna cum laude*, from Cornell Law School, as well as a French law degree (“maitrise en droit”) from the University of Paris I-Sorbonne. Milena Sterio also holds a master’s degree in private international law (“D.E.A.”) from the University of Paris I-Sorbonne. She obtained her B.A. in French Literature and Political Science from Rutgers University, s*umma cum laude*.
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