Saturday 13 March 2010

Commentary on the Rome Statute

Oxford University Press have just published The International Criminal Court: A Commentary on the Rome Statute, of which I am the author.
I apologise for what some may feel is a shameless bit of self-promotion, but I promise not to do so often on this blog. The book is about 1,350 pages long, and consists of an article by article review of the Rome Statute. It takes into account the case law of the Court up to 1 July 2009, as well as academic writing on the subject in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. I've reviewed the written record of the drafting of the Statute, avoiding the temptation of many writers to claim 'this is what we meant' and instead basing conclusions on objective, verifiable sources. There is a full subject index, as well as tables of cases and instruments that are cited.
I've been studying the Court since the early 1990s, when the International Law Commission prepared the draft statute that formed the basis of further negotiations under the aegis of the United Nations General Assembly. I attended several of the Preparatory Committee sessions, as well as the Rome Conference. I'm now looking forward to Kampala, in June, where the first Review Conference of the Statute will be held. I've also written many articles on the Court, as well as the Introduction to the International Criminal Court, which will appear with Cambridge in a fourth edition early next year. It has been translated into Chinese, Turkish and Farsi.
The Commentary joins two other similar works, the first published under the editorship of Antonio Cassese, in 2002, and the second under the editorship of Otto Triffterer, in 2008. I have contributions in both of those volumes too.
It is my hope that the book will assist the Court, which will soon move into its second decade of existence. It is an expensive book, I'm afraid, at GBP 150 or $US 240 (the two other commentaries are double or more that price), and that may unfortunately put it out of reach of many people . The book will be on sale at the upcoming American Society of International Law conference where, I believe, it will be available at a significant discount. It should quickly find its way into the major reference libraries. Just please don't make too many photocopies!

3 comments:

Zuzeeko Abeng said...

I can't wait to get my hands on a copy and nevermind... I won't make too many photocopies. :-)

Luís Paulo said...

Congratulations for the book! I'm sure it will be immensely useful for those working with international criminal law. I'm looking forward to reading it. I would also like to congratulate you for the blog. Even though I rarely comment on it, I check it for new posts almost daily. It has really been an incentive for me to continue to study int. criminal law.

Brian said...

Fantastic - we'll have to make sure UI picks it up soon!