Kevin Jon Heller
Biographic Data
| ID | 2519942 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kevin Jon Heller |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kevin Jon |
| FAMILY NAME | Heller |
| SIGNATURE | HELLER K J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Copenhagen |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 41 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The “Great Powers” and The Formation of International Law
The US, Russia, and China – the current “Great Powers” – often disagree over primary rules of international law, such as the scope of self-defence in response to an armed attack. Such disagreements over primary rules can often be explained in traditional realist fashion, because powerful States generally interpret international law in a manner that reflects and advances their interests. But that is not always the case. In some situations, Great P…
Options for Prosecuting Russian Aggression Against Ukraine: A Critical Analysis
In the wake of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, there is broad consensus–atleast in the Global North1–that Russian leaders must be prosecuted for the crime ofaggression. That consensus, however, does not extend tohowRussian aggressionshould be prosecuted. Some commentators argue that the International Criminal Court(ICC) is the most appropriate forum, even if enlivening the Court’s jurisdiction requiresamending the Rome Statute. Others ca…
Who is Afraid of the Crime of Aggression
There is no question that deterring the illegal use of force is a noble goal. Unfortunately, the crime of aggression, heralded as a major accomplishment when adopted by the Assembly of States Parties, is but a pale shadow of the kind of criminal prohibition that might have convinced would-be aggressors that they will be held accountable for their belligerent acts. Instead, as this article explains, the crime of aggression at the International Cri…
The Illegality of ‘Genuine’ Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention
The activation of the crime of aggression at the International Criminal Court has renewed interest in one of the oldest and most fraught questions of the jus ad bellum: whether a state is entitled to unilaterally use force on the territory of another state for humanitarian purposes. Scholars who support unilateral humanitarian intervention (UHI) generally make two interrelated claims. The first is positivist: that unilateral intervention is lawfu…
The Oxford Handbook of International Criminal Law
In the past twenty years, international criminal law has become one of the main areas of international legal scholarship and practice. Most textbooks in the field describe the evolution of international criminal tribunals, the elements of the core international crimes, the applicable modes of liability and defences, and the role of states in prosecuting international crimes. This book, however, takes a theoretically informed and refreshingly crit…
Specially-Affected States and the Formation of Custom
Although the United States has relied on the ICJ's doctrine of specially-affected states to claim that it and other powerful states in the Global North play a privileged role in the formation of customary international law, the doctrine itself has never been systematically developed by the ICJ or by legal scholars. This article fills that lacuna by addressing two questions: (1) what makes a state “specially affected”?; and (2) what is the importa…
Radical Complementarity
In March 2015, a domestic court in C o ˆ te d’Ivoire sentenced Simone Gbagbo to 20 years in prison for disturbing the peace, organizing armed gangs and undermining state security — a sentence considerably longer than any sentence imposed by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and twice as long as the Ivorian prosecutors requested. The Court has nevertheless held that Gbagbo’s case remains admissible, because her domestic prosecution was not ba…
One Hell of a Killing Machine: Signature Strikes and International Law
The vast majority of drone attacks conducted by the U.S. have been signature strikes – strikes that target “groups of men who bear certain signatures, or defining characteristics associated with terrorist activity, but whose identities aren’t known.” In 2010, for example, Reuters reported that of the 500 “militants” killed by drones between 2008 and 2010, only 8% were the kind “top-tier militant targets” or “mid-to-high-level organizers” whose id…
The Taylor Sentencing Judgment: A Critical Analysis
On 30 May 2012, despite concluding that he was liable for crimes committed in Sierra Leone only as an accessory, Trial Chamber II of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) sentenced Charles Taylor to 50 years imprisonment – the second longest sentence in the Tribunal’s history. This article provides a critical analysis of Taylor’s sentence, asking whether it comports with the principle – widely accepted by international tribunals – that a sent…
The Uncertain Legal Status of the Aggression Understandings
Annex III of Resolution RC/Res.6, adopted by consensus at Kampala on 12 June 2010, contains seven “Understandings” concerning the amendments that add the crime of aggression to the Rome Statute. The legal status of the Understandings, however, was never discussed during the Review Conference, leading scholars to acknowledge that it is difficult to determine how they will influence the Court once the aggression amendments enter into force. Indeed,…
Mistake of Legal Element, the Common Law, and Article 32 of the Rome Statute: A Critical Analysis
Article 32(2) of the Rome Statute provides that [a] of law may... be a ground for excluding criminal responsibility if it negates the mental element required by such a Although this provision has been described as cryptic, I argue in this essay that it was specifically drafted to exculpate what common-law scholars have variously called mistake of mixed fact and law, mistake of legal fact, and - most usefully - mistake of legal element: namely, a …
What Happens to the Acquitted
According to the ICTR, Emmanuel Bagambiki is an innocent man. The trial chamber and the Appeals Chamber have each unanimously acquitted the former Prefect of Cyangugu of crimes relating to Rwanda's horrific 1994 genocide. And on 19 July 2007 Bagambiki was reunited with his wife in children in Belgium, having been granted asylum a few days earlier. It is tempting to conclude that justice has been done in Bagambiki's case. That conclusion, however,…
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda—genocide—conspiracy to commit genocide—complicity in genocide—mens rea—judicial notice
Prosecutor v. Karemera, Ngirumpatse, & Nzirorera. Case No. ICTR-98-44-AR73(C). Decision on Prosecutor's Interlocutory Appeal of Decision on Judicial Notice. At . International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Appeals Chamber, June 16, 2006. In an interlocutory appeal in Prosecutor v. Karemera , the appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) held that the commission of genocide against the Tutsis in 1994 is a “fact of co…
Whatever Happened to Proof beyond a Reasonable Doubt? Of Drug Conspiracies, Overt Acts, and United States v. Shabani
Power, Subjectification and Resistance in Foucault
L'A. s'oppose a l'interpretation classique des theories de Foucault relatives a la problematique du pouvoir, de l'asservissement et de la resistance et propose une nouvelle lecture de l'oeuvre de l'ecrivain en revenant sur les concepts developpes par celui-ci, et en reflechissant a nouveau sur leurs articulations (rapports entre pouvoir, intentionnalite et non-subjectivite, relations entre pouvoir et resistance, idee de liberte)
Power, Subjectification and Resistance in Foucault
L'A. s'oppose a l'interpretation classique des theories de Foucault relatives a la problematique du pouvoir, de l'asservissement et de la resistance et propose une nouvelle lecture de l'oeuvre de l'ecrivain en revenant sur les concepts developpes par celui-ci, et en reflechissant a nouveau sur leurs articulations (rapports entre pouvoir, intentionnalite et non-subjectivite, relations entre pouvoir et resistance, idee de liberte)
One Hell of a Killing Machine: Signature Strikes and International Law
The vast majority of drone attacks conducted by the U.S. have been signature strikes – strikes that target “groups of men who bear certain signatures, or defining characteristics associated with terrorist activity, but whose identities aren’t known.” In 2010, for example, Reuters reported that of the 500 “militants” killed by drones between 2008 and 2010, only 8% were the kind “top-tier militant targets” or “mid-to-high-level organizers” whose id…
Specially-Affected States and the Formation of Custom
Although the United States has relied on the ICJ's doctrine of specially-affected states to claim that it and other powerful states in the Global North play a privileged role in the formation of customary international law, the doctrine itself has never been systematically developed by the ICJ or by legal scholars. This article fills that lacuna by addressing two questions: (1) what makes a state “specially affected”?; and (2) what is the importa…
The Uncertain Legal Status of the Aggression Understandings
Annex III of Resolution RC/Res.6, adopted by consensus at Kampala on 12 June 2010, contains seven “Understandings” concerning the amendments that add the crime of aggression to the Rome Statute. The legal status of the Understandings, however, was never discussed during the Review Conference, leading scholars to acknowledge that it is difficult to determine how they will influence the Court once the aggression amendments enter into force. Indeed,…
Who is Afraid of the Crime of Aggression
There is no question that deterring the illegal use of force is a noble goal. Unfortunately, the crime of aggression, heralded as a major accomplishment when adopted by the Assembly of States Parties, is but a pale shadow of the kind of criminal prohibition that might have convinced would-be aggressors that they will be held accountable for their belligerent acts. Instead, as this article explains, the crime of aggression at the International Cri…
What Happens to the Acquitted
According to the ICTR, Emmanuel Bagambiki is an innocent man. The trial chamber and the Appeals Chamber have each unanimously acquitted the former Prefect of Cyangugu of crimes relating to Rwanda's horrific 1994 genocide. And on 19 July 2007 Bagambiki was reunited with his wife in children in Belgium, having been granted asylum a few days earlier. It is tempting to conclude that justice has been done in Bagambiki's case. That conclusion, however,…
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda—genocide—conspiracy to commit genocide—complicity in genocide—mens rea—judicial notice
Prosecutor v. Karemera, Ngirumpatse, & Nzirorera. Case No. ICTR-98-44-AR73(C). Decision on Prosecutor's Interlocutory Appeal of Decision on Judicial Notice. At . International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Appeals Chamber, June 16, 2006. In an interlocutory appeal in Prosecutor v. Karemera , the appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) held that the commission of genocide against the Tutsis in 1994 is a “fact of co…
Whatever Happened to Proof beyond a Reasonable Doubt? Of Drug Conspiracies, Overt Acts, and United States v. Shabani
Power, Subjectification and Resistance in Foucault
L'A. s'oppose a l'interpretation classique des theories de Foucault relatives a la problematique du pouvoir, de l'asservissement et de la resistance et propose une nouvelle lecture de l'oeuvre de l'ecrivain en revenant sur les concepts developpes par celui-ci, et en reflechissant a nouveau sur leurs articulations (rapports entre pouvoir, intentionnalite et non-subjectivite, relations entre pouvoir et resistance, idee de liberte)
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda—genocide—conspiracy to commit genocide—complicity in genocide—mens rea—judicial notice
Prosecutor v. Karemera, Ngirumpatse, & Nzirorera. Case No. ICTR-98-44-AR73(C). Decision on Prosecutor's Interlocutory Appeal of Decision on Judicial Notice. At . International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Appeals Chamber, June 16, 2006. In an interlocutory appeal in Prosecutor v. Karemera , the appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) held that the commission of genocide against the Tutsis in 1994 is a “fact of co…
Mistake of Legal Element, the Common Law, and Article 32 of the Rome Statute: A Critical Analysis
Article 32(2) of the Rome Statute provides that [a] of law may... be a ground for excluding criminal responsibility if it negates the mental element required by such a Although this provision has been described as cryptic, I argue in this essay that it was specifically drafted to exculpate what common-law scholars have variously called mistake of mixed fact and law, mistake of legal fact, and - most usefully - mistake of legal element: namely, a …
What Happens to the Acquitted
According to the ICTR, Emmanuel Bagambiki is an innocent man. The trial chamber and the Appeals Chamber have each unanimously acquitted the former Prefect of Cyangugu of crimes relating to Rwanda's horrific 1994 genocide. And on 19 July 2007 Bagambiki was reunited with his wife in children in Belgium, having been granted asylum a few days earlier. It is tempting to conclude that justice has been done in Bagambiki's case. That conclusion, however,…
The Uncertain Legal Status of the Aggression Understandings
Annex III of Resolution RC/Res.6, adopted by consensus at Kampala on 12 June 2010, contains seven “Understandings” concerning the amendments that add the crime of aggression to the Rome Statute. The legal status of the Understandings, however, was never discussed during the Review Conference, leading scholars to acknowledge that it is difficult to determine how they will influence the Court once the aggression amendments enter into force. Indeed,…
One Hell of a Killing Machine: Signature Strikes and International Law
The vast majority of drone attacks conducted by the U.S. have been signature strikes – strikes that target “groups of men who bear certain signatures, or defining characteristics associated with terrorist activity, but whose identities aren’t known.” In 2010, for example, Reuters reported that of the 500 “militants” killed by drones between 2008 and 2010, only 8% were the kind “top-tier militant targets” or “mid-to-high-level organizers” whose id…
The Taylor Sentencing Judgment: A Critical Analysis
On 30 May 2012, despite concluding that he was liable for crimes committed in Sierra Leone only as an accessory, Trial Chamber II of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) sentenced Charles Taylor to 50 years imprisonment – the second longest sentence in the Tribunal’s history. This article provides a critical analysis of Taylor’s sentence, asking whether it comports with the principle – widely accepted by international tribunals – that a sent…
Radical Complementarity
In March 2015, a domestic court in C o ˆ te d’Ivoire sentenced Simone Gbagbo to 20 years in prison for disturbing the peace, organizing armed gangs and undermining state security — a sentence considerably longer than any sentence imposed by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and twice as long as the Ivorian prosecutors requested. The Court has nevertheless held that Gbagbo’s case remains admissible, because her domestic prosecution was not ba…
Specially-Affected States and the Formation of Custom
Although the United States has relied on the ICJ's doctrine of specially-affected states to claim that it and other powerful states in the Global North play a privileged role in the formation of customary international law, the doctrine itself has never been systematically developed by the ICJ or by legal scholars. This article fills that lacuna by addressing two questions: (1) what makes a state “specially affected”?; and (2) what is the importa…
The Oxford Handbook of International Criminal Law
In the past twenty years, international criminal law has become one of the main areas of international legal scholarship and practice. Most textbooks in the field describe the evolution of international criminal tribunals, the elements of the core international crimes, the applicable modes of liability and defences, and the role of states in prosecuting international crimes. This book, however, takes a theoretically informed and refreshingly crit…
Who is Afraid of the Crime of Aggression
There is no question that deterring the illegal use of force is a noble goal. Unfortunately, the crime of aggression, heralded as a major accomplishment when adopted by the Assembly of States Parties, is but a pale shadow of the kind of criminal prohibition that might have convinced would-be aggressors that they will be held accountable for their belligerent acts. Instead, as this article explains, the crime of aggression at the International Cri…
The Illegality of ‘Genuine’ Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention
The activation of the crime of aggression at the International Criminal Court has renewed interest in one of the oldest and most fraught questions of the jus ad bellum: whether a state is entitled to unilaterally use force on the territory of another state for humanitarian purposes. Scholars who support unilateral humanitarian intervention (UHI) generally make two interrelated claims. The first is positivist: that unilateral intervention is lawfu…
The “Great Powers” and The Formation of International Law
The US, Russia, and China – the current “Great Powers” – often disagree over primary rules of international law, such as the scope of self-defence in response to an armed attack. Such disagreements over primary rules can often be explained in traditional realist fashion, because powerful States generally interpret international law in a manner that reflects and advances their interests. But that is not always the case. In some situations, Great P…
Options for Prosecuting Russian Aggression Against Ukraine: A Critical Analysis
In the wake of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, there is broad consensus–atleast in the Global North1–that Russian leaders must be prosecuted for the crime ofaggression. That consensus, however, does not extend tohowRussian aggressionshould be prosecuted. Some commentators argue that the International Criminal Court(ICC) is the most appropriate forum, even if enlivening the Court’s jurisdiction requiresamending the Rome Statute. Others ca…
Political science (14 works) · International Law and Human Rights (12 works) · Law (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Global Peace and Security Dynamics (7 works) · International law (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Criminology (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Law and economics (4 works)