The use of external judicial decisions for the determination of substantive international criminal law

Abstract

Within the framework of Article 38(1 )(d) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice (‘ICJ'), this research examines how judges at five international or internationalized criminal courts and tribunals have used judicial decisions from other jurisdictions, in their judgments, for the purpose of determining substantive international criminal law. From a ‘sources of law’ perspective, the research aims to explore some of the purposes for which external judicial decisions may appear to have been used and some of the approaches which judges at these courts and tribunals may appear to have adopted with respect to such use.