Photo by Brad Ritson

Having failed to stop the horrific violations of international law by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank, international law will try a new approach to stop the scourges of war. A just approved special tribunal will charge Russian leaders responsible for the invasion of Ukraine with the crime of aggression. Whereas defendants have been tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, this will be the first time a tribunal will prosecute individuals for the crime of aggression, “the mother of all crimes.”

The Council of Europe (CoE), an international organization that seeks to protect human rights and democracy, on May 14 approved the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russia’s top leaders for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. A special tribunal was needed because Russia is not party to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) Statute to deal with aggression.

There have been other special tribunals, such as for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Cambodia, but the crime of aggression has never been prosecuted before. Several Nazi leaders were convicted of “crimes against peace” during the Nuremburg and Tokyo trials after World War II, but not for aggression.

The idea of prosecuting Russian leaders for aggression came from the eminent, highly creative international jurist Philippe Sands. Almost on a whim, he proposed the idea of creating a special tribunal for Russian aggression against Ukraine in the Financial Times on February 28, 2022, just four days after the Russian invasion. To his surprise, the article instantly went viral. Among the early supporters was Gordon Brown, the former British Prime Minister.

What makes the crime of aggression so unique is that “The crime of aggression is sometimes referred to as the ‘mother of all other crimes’ because it precedes all of........

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