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Sliedregt, Elies van; Stoitchkova, Desislava --- "International Criminal Law" [2010] ELECD 199; in Joseph, Sarah; McBeth, Adam (eds), "Research Handbook on International Human Rights Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Human Rights Law

Editor(s): Joseph, Sarah; McBeth, Adam

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847203687

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: International Criminal Law

Author(s): Sliedregt, Elies van; Stoitchkova, Desislava

Number of pages: 31

Extract:

10. International criminal law
Elies van Sliedregt and Desislava Stoitchkova



1 Introduction
The term `international criminal law' harbours various meanings. Traditionally
it refers to the international aspects of national criminal law. It concerns the
legal issues that arise when prosecuting cross-border crime. States conclude
agreements and treaties on how to proceed when prosecuting such crimes. State
sovereignty plays an important role in this type of `internationalised' criminal
law. Various designations are used to refer to it: transnational criminal law,
horizontal international criminal law, or droit pénal international. Topics that
are typically part of this type of law are: (i) extraterritorial jurisdiction,
(ii) extradition, (iii) police and judicial cooperation, (iv) transfer of criminal
proceedings and (v) transfer and execution of foreign judicial decisions.
Many treaties have been concluded to shape such inter-State collaboration;
some extradition treaties date back to the 16th century. Criminal cooperation
agreements can be bilateral or multilateral. Multilateral treaties very often are
the product of cooperation within a regional or international organisation such
as the Council of Europe or the United Nations (the `UN'). In recent years, the
European Union (the `EU') has been active in setting up a cooperation regime
in criminal matters for its Member States. This more informal and efficient
regime replaces the classical inter-State criminal cooperation regime of the
Council of Europe and is based on the principle of `mutual recognition' of
foreign judicial decisions, which limits the exercise of State sovereignty and
requires States to recognise foreign judicial decisions ...