О неким основним појмовима и изворима међународног кривичног права
On Some Basic Concepts and Sources of International Criminal Law

Author(s): Miodrag N. Simović, Vladimir M. Simović
Subject(s): Criminal Law, International Law
Published by: Правни факултет Универзитета у Источном Сарајеву
Keywords: International criminal law;Sources;Customs;Court decisions;International criminal offenses;
Summary/Abstract: International criminal law is a sub-field of public international law and while the latter is generally concerned with the interstate relations, international criminal law applies to individuals. The essence of international law rests on the equality of the states as abstract legal entities, where, through the constellation of relations, the function of international law is imposed as a guarantee for the establishment of peaceful and constructive relations be- tween the states regardless of the differences that may exist between them. Also, in the scientific literature, the idea is present that international criminal law signifies the rules of criminal law that a particular country defines and enacts on the basis of international treaties, given that this concept includes various forms of international criminal justice cooperation. The authors particularly emphasize that in the existing constellation of relations the states are no longer the sole holders of political and legal-generating power and that they place their emphasis on interacting within global, regional and transnational forums of international, and in some cases transnational, character. In this context, in both theory of national criminal law and in substantial international criminal law the issues of criminal matters are perceived as fundamental. The most restrictive definition of international criminal law concept was related to the spatial validity of a country's criminal law. Today, this law is increasingly understood as an integrative law that has two components: national and international. The second part of the paper deals with the relevance and importance of the factors and content of the sources of international criminal law in national criminal jurisdictions, which differs for each country individually. As a common example, in some jurisdictions, the immediate source of inter- national criminal law is national legislation including this law. In this case, contractual and international common law cannot be used as immediate source. In the opposite case, some courts may apply contractual law but not international common law, while the other courts may apply common law as well. In addition, even if domestic law is an immediate source of applicable law, international criminal law treaties, their comments and international court rulings are often used as an aid in interpreting domestic law and are sometimes considered as compelling (but not binding) precedents.

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