Representational Capacity or Global Governance

On 25 July 2012, the Complaint Division of the Swiss Criminal Federal Court of First Instance decided that the proceedings led by the Office of the Attorney General could continue against a former Algerian minister accused of having perpetrated war crimes between 1992 and 1999. The Court first examined whether Swiss law allowed such proceedings and addressed comprehensively the issue of Swiss jurisdiction, and especially the standing of a domestic proceeding based on universality. It then discussed the question of immunities, in particular functional immunity, and its application when an international crime considered as part of jus cogens is at stake. The indirect dialogue between this decision and the International Court of Justice judgment on jurisdictional immunities of February 2012 is outlined in the article, which then elaborates on the two paradigms organizing the prosecution of international crimes, namely ‘representational capacity’ and ‘global governance’. It highlights some of the issues raised by the global governance paradigm to which the decision of the Swiss Criminal Federal Court adheres

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