Aggression is one of the core international crimes for which the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been vested with the power to prosecute when member states are unwilling or unable to do so. Article 8 bis 3 of the Rome Statute defined aggression to mean the planning, preparation, initiation or execution, by a person in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State, of an act of aggression which, by its character, gravity and scale, constitutes a manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations. However, Article 15 bis 5 of the Rome Statute provides that, in respect of a State that is not a party to the Rome Statute, the Court shall not exercise its jurisdiction over the crime of aggression when committed by that State’s nationals or on its territory. This provision waives the ICC's mandate to prosecute aggressors, thereby creating impunity. Therefore, this Article addresses the legal implications arising from Article 15 bis 5 of the Rome Statute, which restricts the ICC's jurisdiction to prosecute the crime of aggression when committed by nationals of states not party to the Rome Statute.
Sem Amin (Thu,) studied this question.