Legal experts and prosecutorial officials have suggested applying for Taiwan to come under the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) jurisdiction as a means for the nation to build up a “hidden defense shield” as a deterrence against military aggression and potential war crimes by Chinese leaders.
The suggestion came during the main conclusion at a seminar in Taipei on Friday, discussing the “ICC issuing an arrest warrant for Russian President [Vladimir] Putin on war crimes relating to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, relating to the scope of its application and jurisdiction.”
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office hosted the seminar, co-organized by the Taiwan Law Society, jurisprudence study groups and defense specialists from think tanks, to deliberate on ICC issues within the context of Taiwan needing to constantly prepare for war, as it faces a military threat and other challenges from China.
Photo: Reuters
“If military hostility breaks out around Taiwan ... then we must strive to gain support from [the] international community, and to call for sanctions against those who launch the war,” Prosecutor-General Hsing Tai-chao (邢泰釗) said.
“Though some people would question [our] joining the ICC, doubting the effectiveness of the court’s decisions, we can see that the ICC has applied its Rome Statute to issue an arrest warrant for Putin, resulsting in much pressure on him by charging him with war crimes,” he said.
“Taiwanese citizens must prepare for the worst, while making the best preparations in the face of military hostility,” he said.
“We could discuss Taiwan accepting the ICC’s exercise of its jurisdiction, and to have ‘international criminal law’ become our national law. It can be the way for Taiwan to join international society, for application of international law, to build up a ‘hidden defense shield’ for our nation,” he added.
National Taiwan University College of Law professor Lin Yu-hsiung (林鈺雄) pointed to Article 12, Item 3 of the Rome Statute, saying that Taiwan could make a declaration to accept the exercise of jurisdiction by the ICC, with respect to the crimes specified in Article 5, for the crimes of genocide and aggression, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
“Taiwan can learn from Germany, to adapt international law into domestic law ... This way, [we] can ensure our nation has the right to pursue prosecution of the crimes specified in the Rome Statute,” Lin said.
Academia Sinica’s Institutum Iurisprudentiae’s Liao Fu-te (廖福特) suggested following Article 12, with Taiwan making a declaration to lodge with the Registrar of the ICC for acceptance of ICC jurisdiction.
National Tsing Hua University law professor Huang Chu-cheng (黃居正) recommended that Taiwan join as a state signatory of the ICC, and for the domestic legal framework to link with international systems, thereby deterring external military hostile action against Taiwan.
National Cheng Kung University associate professor of law Chen Yi-kai (陳怡凱) said that ICC arrest warrants have practical applications.
As soon as ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan issued the arrest warrant, Putin only appeared in videoconference calls to engage in meetings, Chen said.
“Although Putin claimed that the ICC warrant has no meaning and Russia in turn issued its own arrest warrants against the ICC judge and prosecutor involved, in the common understanding of independent court judges around the world, the ICC action has rendered Putin an international criminal wanted for war crimes,” he said.
National Chengchi University associate professor Kevin Chang (張佳康) said that apart from heads of state, the ICC also has jurisdiction over military leaders and officers conducting war under chains of command, as ICC prosecutors have compiled more than 80,000 cases of alleged atrocities in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
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