National Capacity to Investigate, Prosecute and Adjudicate Core International Crimes

Introduction

The seminar addressed the common challenge of national legislative and institutional preparedness to investigate, prosecute and adjudicate cases involving war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The importance of access to legal information on international criminal law was discussed, in particular the role of information technology. Some leading initiatives in the field were presented and assessed.

About the Speaker

Professor Morten Bergsmo is Senior Researcher, University of Oslo, Faculty of Law (2010-); ICC Consultant and Co-ordinator of the ICC Legal Tools Project (2006-); Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley (2010 Spring); Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University (2010-11); and Visiting Professor, Georgetown University (2010 Fall). He was formerly Senior Researcher, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) (2006-09, still Associated); Special Adviser to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution of Norway (2007-08); Senior Legal Adviser and Chief of the Legal Advisory Section, ICC Office of the Prosecutor (2002-05); Co-ordinator of the establishment of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (2002-03); Legal Adviser, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) (1994-2002); and Legal Adviser, UN Commission of Experts for the Former Yugoslavia established pursuant to Security Council resolution 780(1992) (1993-94). He represented the ICTY to the UN negotiation process to establish the ICC (1996-2002). He has held several international consultancies in international criminal justice. Since 2005, he has worked extensively with national capacity building, knowledge-transfer and legal empowerment in the area of core international crimes, including in Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Canada, Denmark, Indonesia, Iraq, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Norway and Serbia. He has founded and directs the capacity building platform Case Matrix Network (www.casematrixnetwork.org) and the Forum for International Criminal and Humanitarian Law (www.fichl.org). He studied at the universities of Oslo, Copenhagen and Cambridge and has published extensively in international criminal law.

Presentation

To download Prof Bergsmo’s presentation in PDF format, click here.