Q&A with Dr Carrie McDougall on the Crime of Aggression

Join the Victorian Chapter of the International Law Association (Australian branch) on Thursday 31 October 2024 from 5:30 PM for an engaging seminar hosted by Corrs NOW, Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s dedicated network for women.

Crimes against peace, which attached individual criminal responsibility to violations of the prohibition of the use of force, were the centrepiece of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials following World War II. Ever since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the crime of aggression (the modern incarnation of crimes against peace) has been in the spotlight again. The International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine, but (absent a Security Council referral) lacks jurisdiction over crimes of aggression because of a non-State party carve out – the price paid to the Permanent Five members of the Council for securing agreement on the aggression amendments. So how could those responsible for crimes of aggression committed against Ukraine be prosecuted? And how could this jurisdictional gap in the ICC’s statute be fixed going forward?

Dr Carrie McDougall, Senior Lecturer at Melbourne Law School, will discuss her extensive experience in international law with a focus on the crime of aggression. Dr McDougall will speak to her work advising the Ukrainian Government on the proposed establishment of a Special Tribunal for crimes of aggression committed on the territory of Ukraine, and her role in preparing model amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in relation to the ICC’s jurisdiction over the crime of aggression.

The talk will be followed by an opportunity to ask audience questions and refreshments.

Speaker Bio:

Dr Carrie McDougall teaches and researches international law at the University of Melbourne, specialising in the law on the use of force by States (jus ad bellum), international criminal law and international humanitarian law.

She returned to academia after nearly a decade working for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, where she served first as Legal Specialist and Assistant Director of the International Law Section in Canberra and then as Legal Adviser at Australia’s Mission to the United Nations in New York, where she also served as Vice President of the UN General Assembly’s Sixth Committee. Among her more consequential work, Carrie: provided advice to the Australian Government on the legality of uses of force; drafted rules of engagement for various military operations; played an instrumental role in relation to numerous contentious issues in the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties; and had a leading role in negotiations on the response to the downing of flight MH17, as well as the establishment of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria.

A long-time participant in international negotiations on the crime of aggression, Carrie is the author of The Crime of Aggression under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (2nd ed., CUP, 2021).

Among her various roles, Carrie is currently: Chair of the Australian Red Cross, International Humanitarian Law Advisory Committee (Victoria); a member of the Council of Advisers of the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression; a member of the International Law Association Committee on the Use of Force; a member of the International Expert Group on Nuclear Weapons and International Law; and a member (and former co-chair) of the Australia and New-Zealand Society of International Law’s International Peace and Security Interest Group.

Registration begins at 5:30 PM, with the talk commencing at 6:00 PM. The event will conclude at 7:30 PM.

Host or Publisher Victorian Chapter ILA (Australia Branch)