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International Criminal Court Code of Conduct for the Office of the Prosecutor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lawrence Pacewicz
Lawrence Pacewicz*
Affiliation:
Trial Chamber III, International Criminal Court
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Extract

On September 5, 2013, the Code of Conduct for the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP Code) adopted by the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) at the International Criminal Court (Court or ICC) entered into force, a little over a year after the commencement of the term of the current Prosecutor, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda. Though the Code fills an important void in the regulation of OTP ethical conduct, its provenance and content mean that much will depend on the manner in which it is applied in the future.

Type
International Legal Materials
Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 397 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2014

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References

* This text was reproduced and reformatted from the text available at the International Criminal Court website (visited April 17, 2014), http://icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/oj/otp-COC-Eng.PDF.

1 International Criminal Court, Code of Conduct for the Office of the Prosecutor (2013) [hereinafter OTP Code], http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/PIDS/docs/Code%20 of%20Conduct%20for%20the%20office%20of%20the%20 Prosecutor.pdf.

2 International Criminal Court, Biography of Mrs. Fatou Bnsouda, ICC Prosecutor (2014), http://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/structure%20of%20the%20court/office%20of%20the%20prosecutor/Pages/theprosecutor2012.aspx.

3 Code of Professional Conduct for Counsel, Res. ICC-ASP/4/Res.1 (Dec. 2, 2005) [hereinafter ICC Code], http://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/BD397ECF-8CA8-44EF-92C6- AB4BEBD55BE2/140121/ICCASP432Res1_English.pdf; International Criminal Court, Code of Judicial Ethics (2005), http://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/A62EBC0FD534- 438F-A128-D3AC4CFDD644/140141/ICCBD020105_En. pdf.

4 Arman Sarvarian, Professional Ethics at the International Bar 203 (2013).

5 The Code of Professional Conduct for Prosecutors of the International Criminal Court, http://amicc.org/docs/prosecutor.pdf (draft prepared by the secretariats of the International Association of Prosecutors and the Coalition For The International Criminal Court for consultation and peer review).

6 International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Standards of Professional Conduct for Prosecution Counsel (1999), http://www.icty.org/x/file/Legal%20Library/Miscellaneous/otp_regulation_990914.pdf; International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Prosecutor’s Regulation No. 2 (1999), href="http://www.unictr.org/Portals/0/English%5CLegal%5CProsecutor%5Creg_05.pdf.

7 Special Court for Sierra Leone, Code of Professional Conduct for Counsel with the Right of Audience before the SCSL (2006) [hereinafter SCSL Code], http://www.sc-sl.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=bTonPm XLHk%3D&tabid=76.

8 Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Code of Professional Conduct for Counsel Appearing Before the Tribunal (2011) [hereinafter STL Code], http://www.stl-tsl.org/en/documents/codeof- conduct-for-counsel/code-of-professional-conduct-for-counselappearing- before-the-tribunal.

9 The Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, Case No. ICC- 01/09-02/11-747, Decision on the Defence application concerning professional ethics applicable to prosecution lawyers, ¶ 10 (May 31, 2013) [hereinafter Decision on Defence Application], http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/doc/doc1599174.pdf.

10 International Criminal Court, Staff Rules of the International Criminal Court Rule 101.3(a)–(b) (2005), http://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/legal%20texts%20and%20tools/official%20journal/Pages/staff%20rules%20of%20the% 20international%20criminal%20court%20%20annex%20to% 20icc%20ai%202005%20003.aspx.

11 Id. at Rule 101.6.

12 Id. at Rule 101.5.

13 Id. at Rule 101.4.

14 Decision on Defence Application, supra note 9, at ¶ 16.

15 Sarvarian, supra note 4, at 203.

16 ICC Code, supra note 3, at ch. 4.

17 STL Code, supra note 8, at 1.

18 SCSL Code, supra note 7, at arts. 27, 35; STL Code, supra note 8, ¶ 54.

19 OTP Code, supra note 1, at ch. 2, Section 2.

20 Id. at ch. 2, Section 6.

21 Id. at ch. 2, Section 7.

22 Id. at ch. 2, Section 9.

23 Id. at ch. 3, Section 1.

24 Id. at ch. 3, Section 2.

25 Id. at ch. 3, Section 3.

26 Note for instance the duty incumbent upon the Prosecutor at the ICC, pursuant to Article 54(1)(a) of the Rome Statute, to “investigate incriminating and exonerating circumstances equally”, a duty not applicable to Prosecutors at, for example, the ICTY and ICTR. See also, e.g., Milan Markovic, The ICC Prosecutor’s Missing Code of Conduct, 47 Texas Int’l L. J. 201, 211 (2011).

27 See, e.g., Markovic, supra note 26, at 212-22.

28 See id. at 222-28.

29 See International Bar Association, Counsel Matters at the International Criminal Court: A Review of Key Developments Impacting Lawyers Practising Before the ICC 17 (2012) http://www.ibanet.org/Document/Default.aspx?DocumentUid=56FBA79-7A9D-4BD2-93D6- A81A91A4FFBA. See also Markovic, supra note 26, at 229-35.