Luis Moreno-Ocampo, founding Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and Tim McCormack, the James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Special Adviser on International Humanitarian Law to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, discussed challenges that lie ahead for the International Criminal Court (ICC), the first permanent court established to deal with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The event, which took place at Harvard Law School on Jan. 13, was sponsored by the Harvard Law School Office of the Dean and Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program.
Moreno-Ocampo, who is co-teaching a January-term class at Harvard Kennedy School, was the subject of a recent book of essays by HLS Dean Martha Minow, HLS Professor Alex Whiting and Syracuse University College of Law Assistant Professor Cora True-Frost that examine his role and his legacy as the ICC’s first prosecutor. Elected in 2003, Moreno Ocampo conducted investigations in seven different countries, presenting charges against Muammar Gaddafi for crimes against humanity committed in Libya, the President of the Sudan Omar Al Bashir for genocide in Darfur, the former President of Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo. His office was involved in 20 of the most serious crises of the 21st century including Iraq, Korea, Afghanistan, and Palestine.
A scholar of International Humanitarian and International Criminal Law, Tim McCormack is a professor at Melbourne Law School. He has also served as an international observer (with Lord David Trimble of Northern Ireland) of the Turkel Commission Enquiry into Israel’s Mechanisms and Processes for Investigating Allegations of War Crimes in Jerusalem (2011-2013); Expert Law of War Adviser to Major Michael D. Mori for the defense of David Hicks before the US Military Commission in Guantanamo Bay (2003-2007); and Amicus Curiae on International Law Issues for the trial for the trial of Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague (2002-2006).
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