The Right to Appeal and the Competence to Convict on Appeal at the ICC

The legal instruments of the International Criminal Court (ICC) appear to permit overturning an acquittal and entering a conviction at the appellate stage when the prosecutor brings an appeal. Whether an appellate instance in a two-tier tribunal like the ICC has the competence to enter a new conviction without the further right to appeal proves more nuanced and contentious on closer examination. To date, the law and practice of international(ized) criminal tribunals have seen three approaches to entering new convictions on appeal: permissive, relative and prohibitive. There is currently no ICC jurisprudence on the issue, but as discussed in the article, the ICC Appeals Chamber might favour the relative approach for its flexibility. Since new convictions on appeal in most international(ized) criminal tribunals restrict the right of a person to have their conviction reviewed by a ‘higher tribunal’, this article anticipates the main competing considerations and their possible resolution in future ICC litigation

Acquittal · Appeal · Competence (human resources · Convict · Conviction · Jurisprudence · Tribunal · Criminal Law and Evidence · International Arbitration and Investment Law · International Law and Human Rights