An analysis of the key institutes of in­ternational criminal law on the background of the Pinochet case

The decision of the House of Lords in the Pinochet case is the first judgment rendered by a municipal court in which a former head of state of a fo­reign country has been held accountable at law far crimes under internatianal law. This case is part of the current sweeping development in the field of in­ternational criminal law. This discipline of interna­tional law has recently gained considerable momen­tum thanks to the setting up of the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda by the UN Security Council and adoption of the Rome Statu­te of an International Criminal Court. The nation of crime under international law, established by the Nuremberg principles, was resurrected by these international judicial bodies and and its concept alsa was a legal basis for the House of Lards in the Pi­nochet case.
The author of this article focuses on the appli­cation by the Law Lords of the notion crime under international law and of other related principles of international criminal law as irrelevance of offici­al capacity or universal jurisdictian. On the bac­kground of the Pinochet case the writer also eva­luates these key terms of international criminal law in a broader context of their position with respect to other disciplines of international law.