The Annotated Digest of the International Criminal Court, 2008

The Annotated Digest of the International Criminal Court, 2008, is the third volume in an annual series, which compiles a selection of the most significant legal findings from public decisions rendered by the International Criminal Court in 2008. A total of 472 public decisions were reviewed for the preparation of this volume. The selected abstracts include an extraordinary number of landmark decisions on substantive and procedural issues including, among others, the constitutive elements of crimes against humanity and war crimes, the rights of victims to participate in different stages of proceedings, the guarantees of a fair trial, and the prosecutorial obligation to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence in its possession. The year was marked by two new arrests, one in the situation from the Democratic Republic of Congo (Ngudjolo), the other in the situation from the Central African Republic (Bemba), as well as confirmation of charges in the joint case The Prosecutor v. Katanga and Ngudjolo. Finally, 2008 paved the way for commencement of the first trials in the history of the International Criminal Court, which officially began in 2009. Abstracts included in this series were selected based on the following criteria: (i) clarification of a legal issue or interpretation of a legal provision; (ii) implementation or application of a legal provision; and (iii) meaningfulness with respect to international justice, human rights, or international humanitarian law. Passages are normally quoted in English, except where the English translation has not been made available; in such circumstances, abstracts are provided in French with an accompanying English-language summary. Selected abstracts are organized under the relevant Statute, Rule of Procedure and Evidence, or Regulation of the Court. A short description or summary is provided for each topic, and a reference system and index allow for easy reference to other decisions quoted in the Digest series.