Recent Approaches in the Distinction between Crimes and Delicts in Public International Law

Dr. Mohammed Al-Ghalbzouri / Visiting Professor at Abdelmalek Saadi University, Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences, Tangier , Morocco.

Translated by Dr. Asma Kebiri

Democratic Arab Center

Journal of Afro-Asian Studies Third Issue –  October 2019

A Periodical International Journal published by the “Democratic Arab Center” Germany – Berlin. The journal deals with the field of Afro-Asian strategic, political and economic studies

 :Abstract

The Contemporary international law has begun moving towards recognizing the varying importance or differential, varying and hierarchic legal value of its rules, where there are normal – martial and conventional – legal rules whose violation constitutes an international misdemeanor, as well as jus cogens or obligations of all, which have a higher and more serious legal value; where its violation is considered greater than just an international misdemeanor, in fact it is an international crime. The emergence of the concept of international crime is therefore a reflection of developments in the international community since the beginning of the Second World War, which have contributed greatly to creating a strong  international awareness of  the need to distinguish between two categories of illicit international acts on the grounds that crimes committed by Germans during the Second World War cannot be described only as ordinary illicit acts that entail the same international responsibility arising from illicit acts that are described as delinquent. Therefore, this war has represented, and in a general context of international developments that emerged following to it, a real beginning in thinking about the legal molding of international crime and distinguishing it from international misdemeanor and devoting that within the international legal system. The international crimes of countries result in additional legal consequences, meaning in addition to the consequences of the obligation to desist and guarantees of non-repetition and restitution of the damages resulting from the international misdemeanors. It is in the interest of the international community as a whole to intervene to settle them, since the relationship that results from them deviate from the bilateral framework between the damaged and the aggressor states, to the interest of the international community as a whole in intervening to settle these crimes.