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The subject of this paper is the r esearch of the place and substance of the principle of legality within the framework of the International Criminal Law. Firstly, the author briefly shows the main features of the said principle in general and compares its status in Continental and AngloAmerican (common law) legal systems. Afterwards, he researches the historical genesis of the principle of legality in the International Criminal Law and especially its place in the practice of International Military Tribunals in Nuremberg and Tokyo and the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals of the UN Security Council for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The author concludes that the principle of legality, more famously expressed through Latin maxim nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege, exists in the Customary International Law, but in a form that is too extensive, as a principle of legality sui generis. In this regard, it is pointed out that the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court has made an attempt to bring the meaning of the principle of legality in the International Criminal Law closer to the one it has in the Continental Criminal Law system. However, the Rome Statute is still considered to represent particular International (Criminal) Law and as such its provisions, including the ones concerning the principle of legality, apply only to the member states of the Statute. Finally, the author is putting forward his stance regarding the issue of the direct application of the International Criminal Law in the national legal systems, in the context of the principle of legality.
Aleksa Škundrić (Mon,) studied this question.