Today I was invited an attended this online debate organised by Chatham House in the UK with panelists including former UK PM Mr. Gordon Brown and Philippe Joseph Sands, QC to discuss the proposition of creating a tribunal specifically to protect against aggression of a sovereign state considering that such a protection is not currently within the statutes of the International Criminal Court (ICC) or the European Court of Justice; so it’s considered a complimentary body to these legal structures. An interesting proposition and you can make up your own minds after watching the clip but from where I stand I have 2 basic reservations;
- It makes no sense to me as a layman in International Law to talk of creating yet another legal structure rather than fixing the gaps that exist in current ones by expanding their ability to protect against foreign aggression and other forms of actions that are beyond international norms and that can cause a serious destabilisation to world order. Also, we should be more for merging bureaucracies rather than merely adding more which undermines existing structures and the philosophy behind developing a universal international framework for legal accountability.
- At the moment of ongoing military aggression it is a bit rich to begin having a conversation on future legal protections rather focus on actions on the ground that can end the aggression and save actual lives of Ukrainians still fighting for their lives and their country. Just imagine if the same debate happened in the US before committing forces/arms to protect Europe in WWII. If anything it is yet another indication that the so-called western alliance has become a futile structure that acts as an enabler for rather than a deterrent from aggression simply because WWII lessons have been forgotten. The same ol same ol behaviour vis-a-vis Hitlers aggressions in eastern Europe prior to WWII that gave him the confidence to pursue his plans further is precisely what we’re seeing now. So talk of legal protections is far less important than a discussion of our failures in protecting Ukraine and actually doing something about it now.
Just a thought!