Abstract

This paper is a redacted version of the author’s Goler T. Butcher Lecture, delivered on 8 April 2022. The talk centered on the problem of holding heads of state accountable for international crimes on occasion of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It enumerated the challenges behind establishing the jurisdiction of the ICC in aggression cases, as well as the factors impeding the creation of an ad hoc tribunal for the same purpose. Dismantling pro-immunity arguments, the author turns to substantiating the customary international law nature of the accountability of heads of state for international crimes, concluding the paper with an overview of negotiations leading up to the drafting of Article 227 of the Versailles Treaty.