Building a Global Criminal Justice System at the Domestic Level

Project Information

JOINEDUPJUSTICE

Grant agreement ID: 101055397

DOI

10.3030/101055397

EC signature date 30 June 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2027

Funded under

• European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 332 184,00

EU contribution

€ 2 332 184,00

Coordinated by

TILBURG UNIVERSITY- UNIVERSITEIT VAN TILBURG
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - JOINEDUPJUSTICE (Building a Global Criminal Justice System at the Domestic Level)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

JOINEDUPJUSTICE aims to develop a coordinated system of global justice at the domestic/national level. While the project’s focus is on international criminal law (ICL), international refugee law (IRL) is the starting point; it is the metaphorical canary in the coal mine that flags up questions at the heart of ICL.

Many of the national prosecutions of international crimes are asylum related. This comes with problems. First, article 1F(a) of the Refugee Convention stipulates that those who are suspected of having committed international crimes are undeserving of protection and should be prosecuted. There is no uniform understanding of ‘undeserving’. At the same time, ICL lacks an overarching policy of who is deserving of prosecution. Many excluded asylum claimants remain unprosecuted and exist in a legal limbo. Second, asylum related prosecutions have a distorting effect. It comes with a focus on low-level and ‘low cost’ defendants (from weak countries). Third, it hampers developing a long-term approach to ICL enforcement.

JOINEDUPJUSTICE scrutinizes the assumptions underlying ICL and proposes an overarching and coordinated policy of international crimes prosecutions that aligns with ICL, IRL and human rights law (HRL). To understand the full scope of disparity in the prosecution of international crimes we need to conduct a ‘mapping exercise’ by way of empirical research into domestic prosecutorial decision-making (which case to prosecute and which ones not). To fully grasp the degree to which prosecution of migrants, via refugee exclusion, is linked to ICL and possibly distorts its focus (focusing on lower-level perpetrators and those on the margins of criminality), we need to understand the meaning of ‘undeserving’ of refugee protection and ‘deserving’ of punishment. A typology of criminal conduct will be developed drawing the outer limit of international criminal liability. This will then be compared to the scope of refugee exclusion (meaning of ‘undeserving’). Any excluded cases that fall outside the typology should be viewed as undeserving of prosecution and hence deserving of IRL protection. The typology addresses the current mismatch of thresholds that generates outlaws; claimants who have been excluded but are not prosecuted. The recalibration of ‘undeserving’ enables setting up a settlement scheme.

The aim of JOINEDUPJUSTICE is to develop a global criminal justice system at the domestic level. This means (i) developing a system of inter-state coordination and burden-sharing by way of jurisdiction allocation and (ii) proposing alternatives to prosecution, including settlement of those who are excluded but not prosecuted.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

1.1 RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS

1. Inaugural lecture on 31 March 2023, Tilburg University
Output
- Sliedregt, E. van (2023), Uitzonderlijk Strafrecht (Exceptional Criminal Law), inaugural address Tilburg University 31 March 2023

2. Panel at CARFMS, Toronto, 30 May 2023
As PI, I gave a (invited) keynote speech - presenting the project - at the annual CARFM meeting in May 2023. With two of the researchers of the team (on projects WP1(B) and WP2) and the two co-investigators from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and York University, Toronto.
Output
- D. Dogar, “Unrecognizing refugees: The inadmissibility scheme replacing Article 1F decisions in Canada”- International Journal of Refugee Law, Volume 35, Issue 4, December 2023, 370–403, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eeae001
- Sugrue, R. (2023). Exclusion in international refugee law. A & MR (Asiel & Migrantenrecht), 6(7), 297-299.

3. Expert Meeting in Tilburg, 8 June 2023 with members of the Dutch International Crimes Team of the Public Prosecution Service and people from the Exclusion Unit of the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service.

4. JOINEDUPJUSTICE Conference in Tilburg, 13-14 June 2025
Output: The working papers of the conference have been submitted (and accepted) to 3 special issues of high-ranking peer-reviewed Journals:

5. Building a research community
Since the start of the project, we have organized a series of (internal) research meetings (every 2 weeks) with the team and other TiU PhD researchers interested in international criminal justice and refugee law. We have 6 weekly team meetings where we invite external speakers.

6. Data collection in the following jurisdictions: Canada, Australia, Argentina, the Netherlands.

1.2 RESEARCH OUTPUT

Peer-reviewed article:
- D. Dogar, “Unrecognizing refugees: The inadmissibility scheme replacing Article 1F decisions in Canada”- International Journal of Refugee Law, Volume 35, Issue 4, December 2023, Pages 370–403, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eeae001

Books:
- Sliedregt, E. van (2023), Uitzonderlijk Strafrecht (Exceptional Criminal Law), inaugural address Tilburg University 31 March 2023
- D. Dogar, The Misuse of Immigration and Refugee Law for Criminal Law and National Security Risks: Exclusion, Inadmissibility and Beyond, (Passed peer-review; Under advance contract with Brill/Nijhoff)

Blog/Engagement
- Van Sliedregt, ‘A New ICC Policy on Complementarity? Let’s Fast Forward to Universal Jurisdiction Allocation’ Just Security, 12 August 2024.

Special issues in 3 (peer reviewed) Journals

1.3 KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

Whilst in Australia in early 2024, I was engaged in conversations with 2 Australian civil society organizations: the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) and the Justice and Accountability Network Australia (JANA). The JOINEDUPJUSTICE project features in the Annual Report of JANA as an illustration of the importance of collaboration and coordination when prosecuting international crimes domestically.

Training legal professionals
- École nationale de la magistrature, Paris, Course on ICL for French judges and juges d’instruction, a day training on the interplay international-national criminal law, April 2023-2025
- Dutch Court of Justice, The Hague, Training Day on Universal Jurisdiction, 20 June 2025
- Kosovo Special Chambers, 6 December 2024: The Hague, Annual Training Day. Topic this year: Universal Jurisdiction

1.4 MOST SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENTS
- D. Dogar, “Unrecognizing refugees: The inadmissibility scheme replacing Article 1F decisions in Canada”- International Journal of Refugee Law, Volume 35, Issue 4, December 2023, Pages 370–403, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eeae001
- Sliedregt, E. van (2023), Uitzonderlijk Strafrecht (Exceptional Criminal Law), inaugural address Tilburg University 31 March 2023
- D. Dogar, The Misuse of Immigration and Refugee Law for Criminal Law and National Security Risks: Exclusion, Inadmissibility and Beyond, (Passed peer-review; Under advance contract with Brill/Nijhoff)
- Van Sliedregt, ‘A New ICC Policy on Complementarity? Let’s Fast Forward to Universal Jurisdiction Allocation’ Just Security, 12 August 2024.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The JOINEDUPJUSTICE project has made the need for a collaborative, inter-state system of international criminal justice firmly on the agenda. The topic of ‘The ICC as a Justice Hub’ deferring cases to national states who then prosecute international crimes themselves, is at the top of the agenda at the ICC but also at European institutions, particularly Eurojust. JOINEDUPJUSTUCE has tapped into a trend that has gained momentum because of recent geopolitical changes, shifting away from reliance on international institutions like the ICC.