An Introduction To The International Criminal Court - Institute for ...

general principles of criminal law 115
by the Court of its jurisdiction. Nevertheless, Article 98(2) of the Statute
prevents the Court from proceeding with requests for surrender or assistance
where these may impinge upon other obligations, whether imposed
by treaty or by customary law.
Statutory limitation
The Rome Statute declares that crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court
shall not be subject to any statute of limitations. 106 Because there is no
statutory limitation provided within the Statute itself, it seems that Article 29
is directed more at national legislation. Many domestic criminal law systems
provide for the statutory limitation of crimes, even the most serious. 107
Under French law, for example, prosecutions for murder are time-barred
after ten years. 108 Codes derived from the Napoleonic model generally have
similar provisions. At his trial in Israel in 1961, Nazi war criminal Adolf
Eichmann invoked a fifteen-year limitation period in force in Argentina,
from where he had been kidnapped. The District Court of Jerusalem ruled
that Argentine norms could not apply, adding a reference to applicable
Israeli legislation declaring that ‘the rules of prescription...shall not apply
to offences under this Law’. 109
International opposition to statutory limitation for war crimes, crimes
against humanity and genocide has taken the form of General Assembly
resolutions, 110 and treaties within both the United Nations system 111 and
that of the Council of Europe. 112 But the treaties have not been a great success
in terms of signature and ratification; the United Nations instrument still
has less than fifty States parties. The low rate of adhesion to the United
106 Rome Statute, Art. 29.
107 See Anne-Marie Larosa, Dictionnaire de droit international pénal, Termes choisis, Paris: Presses
universitaires de France, 1998, pp. 50–2.
108 Penal Code (France), Art. 7.
109 A-G Israel v. Eichmann, (1968) 36 ILR 18 (District Court, Jerusalem), para. 53.
110 GA Res. 3 (I); GA Res. 170 (II); GA Res. 2583 (XXIV); GA Res. 2712 (XXV); GA Res. 2840
(XXVI); GA Res. 3020 (XXVII); GA Res. 3074 (XXVIII).
111 Convention on the Nonapplicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes
Against Humanity, (1970) 754 UNTS 73. See Robert H. Miller, ‘The Convention on the Non-
Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity’, (1971) 65
American Journal of International Law 476.
112 European Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitation to Crimes Against
Humanity and War Crimes, 25 January 1974, ETS No. 82.