The Aut Dedere Aut Judicare System for Crimes Against Humanity: A Critical but Missing Tool in the Fight Against Impunity

The aut dedere aut judicare system is critical in the global fight against impunity for the most heinous crimes. Such a system ensures the creation of a widespread web for the elimination of safe havens for perpetrators of these crimes and pursues that goal by empowering and obligating national jurisdictions to discharge their share of the burden in international criminal justice. Indeed, an aut dedere aut judicare system consists of two core elements: an obligation to extradite or prosecute any alleged offender found in the state’s territory and an obligation to establish a title of conditional universal jurisdiction. However, absent a specialized convention, such a system is currently missing for crimes against humanity. To fill this serious gap, the International Law Commission elaborated a proposal for a new convention incorporating a rather satisfactory aut dedere aut judicare system in Draft Articles 7 and 10. The system envisioned by the ILC for crimes against humanity is at the core of the present analysis.