A SPOTLIGHT ON THE IMMUNITY OF HEADS OF STATE AND PROSECUTION OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMES BEFORE INTERNATIONAL COURTS
Downloads
Keywords:
Immunity, African Heads of State, Subpoenas, International CourtAbstract
This article contextualizes the issues of immunity and prosecution of international crimes at the International court and how the immunity of Heads of State has been treated at the International court level. The question of immunity of Heads of State officials from prosecution for international crimes has been treated differently by international courts while international criminal law is clear in itself that no Heads of State official is immune from prosecution for international crimes, the jurisprudence of international criminal tribunals reveals that there is a disagreement as to the extent of immunity accorded to Heads of State officials. Furthermore the discussion of the topic also addresses that, there is no uniform treatment or application of the immunity of Heads of States before international courts. The article argues further that the problem arises regarding issuance of subpoenas against Heads of state to testify or produce evidence before international courts. The jurisprudence of international courts indicates that such courts have adopted different positions on the extent and scope of immunity accorded to Heads of States where as Heads of state officials do not receive the same treatment before international courts hence this article examines the inconsistencies and loopholes on the aspect of subpoenas to Heads of state officials.
External References to this Article
Loading reference data...
Readership Data
Refreshing Cached Analytics Data
The cached analytics data has become stale and journal.thelawbrigade.com is making a fresh request to fetch the latest data from Google Analytics. This may take 20-30 seconds depending on the server response time from Google Analytics. Please do not close the browser during this time. We appreciate your patience.
References
Books
SBO Gutto, ‘Africa’s Contradictory Roles and Participation in the International
Criminal Justice System’, Ankumah and EK. Kwakwa (eds.), 2005
Journals
MC Bassiouni and EM Wise (1995) Aut dedere aut judicare; A Cassese, (Ed), (2009)
The Oxford Companion to International Criminal Justice.
M Du Plessis (2010) The International Criminal Court that Africa wants,
Monography No 172,18
Mamdani ‘The new humanitarian order’ The Nation, No 29 of September 2008
P Mochochoko, ‘Africa and the International Criminal Court’ in EA Ankumah and
EK. Kwakwa (eds.,), (2005) African perspectives on international criminal justice, 24
1-258.
JL Mallory ‘Resolving the confusion over Heads of State immunity: The defined rights
of Kings’ (1986) 86 Columbia Law Review 169-170
Reports
Dr George Mugwanya, Senior Appeals Counsel, ICTR. The report on the Discussion
regarding the Genocide in Rwanda 9 July 2010 at The Hague.
License Terms
Ownership and Licensing:
Authors of research papers submitted to any journal published by The Law Brigade Publishers retain the copyright of their work while granting the journal specific rights. Authors maintain ownership of the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication. Simultaneously, authors agree to license their research papers under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) License.
License Permissions:
Under the CC BY-SA 4.0 License, others are permitted to share and adapt the work, even for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate attribution is given to the authors, and acknowledgment is made of the initial publication by The Law Brigade Publishers. This license encourages the broad dissemination and reuse of research papers while ensuring that the original work is properly credited.
Additional Distribution Arrangements:
Authors are free to enter into separate, non-exclusive contractual arrangements for distributing the published version of the work (e.g., posting it to institutional repositories or publishing it in books), provided that the original publication by The Law Brigade Publishers is acknowledged.
Online Posting:
Authors are encouraged to share their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on personal websites) both prior to submission and after publication. This practice can facilitate productive exchanges and increase the visibility and citation of the work.
Responsibility and Liability:
Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submitted research papers do not infringe on the copyright, privacy, or other rights of third parties. The Law Brigade Publishers disclaims any liability for any copyright infringement or violation of third-party rights within the submitted research papers.
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright © 2026 by Francisco Mwizamholya
The copyright and license terms mentioned on this page take precedence over any other license terms mentioned on the article full text PDF or any other material associated with the article.
