The Development of International Humanitarian Law in the Jurisprudence of the International Criminal Court: Formulation and Interpretation of Article 8 of the Rome Statute

The contribution of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to the development of international humanitarian law (IHL) lies on two levels: the formulation of the war crimes’ provision in Article 8 of the Rome Statute and the Court’s interpretative approach with respect to war crimes to date. The exploration of these two issues will illustrate some important distinctive characteristics of the ICC’s contribution to the development of IHL and how it may be distinguished from the earlier work of other international criminal courts and tribunals.