The ICC Legal Tools
The Centre signed a Co-operation Agreement with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2005 and has since become a lead partner in the development of the Courts’ Legal Tools Project. The main objective is to provide users both inside and outside the Court equal access to legal information services required to construct legal arguments in cases containing charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague
The Legal Tools have been developed by the Legal Advisory Section (LAS) of the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC (ICC-OTP) since 2003, under the direction of Morten Bergsmo, who conceived and supervised the project and its different components as LAS Chief. The Legal Tools were initially conceived to assist the ICC-OTP with legal research and drafting regarding the elements of crimes, modes of criminal liability and key procedural and evidentiary questions. In 2005, the ICC Prosecutor decided to share with the entire Court and, to the extent feasible, with the general public, the services comprising the Legal Tools. As a result, the Court-wide Legal Tools Advisory Committee was established.
The LAS has drawn on more than ten years of experience from the practice of international criminal justice in the development of the Legal Tools, aiming to base the Tools on a firm understanding of the work processes in core international crimes cases. The LAS has also studied relevant work processes in several large national serious fraud agencies for the same purposes.
The Legal Tools
The Legal Tools aspire to equip users with the legal information, commentaries and software required to work effectively with international criminal law. It seeks to serve as a complete virtual library on international criminal law and justice. The Tools comprise at present a Legal Tools Database, the law-driven case management and legal information application Case Matrix, and the Elements and Means of Proof digests.
The ICC aims to provide a set of services which is useful to the work of the Court and of other jurisdictions and organisations, and which is also available for free to researchers, students and any other person interested in international criminal law and justice.
Partner Institutions
As the ICC is developing into an operational court with an increasing number of investigations, situations and cases, it will not be able to sustain the labour-intensive, long-term effort which the Legal Tools Project requires. The court has in this regard initiated partnerships with external institutions in order to maintain and develop the Legal Tools further. The partners have formed a Legal Tools Outsourcing Partners Network (the LTOP Network). You can read more about the partners and their activities at the Network's website.
Futher development
Pursuant to the Agreement with the ICC, and under the direction and supervision of the Legal Tools Advisory Committee, NCHR acts as the lead agency in the maintenance and further development of the following Legal Tools:
- Basic ICC documents
- ICC preparatory works
- International legal instruments
- Human rights decisions
- International(ised) criminal jurisdictions
- International(ised) criminal judgements
- Selected national jurisdictions
- Selected national cases involving core international crimes
- Publicists
- Updating the Means of Proof Digest