Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Dr. h.c. Claus Kreß LL.M. (Cambridge)
Claus Kreß is a Professor of International Law and Criminal Law. He holds the Chair for German and International Criminal Law and he is the Director of the Institute of International Peace and Security Law at the University of Cologne. His prior practice was in the German Federal Ministry of Justice on matters of criminal law and international law. In addition to his scholarly work, comprising more than 200 publications on the law on the use of force, the law of armed conflicts and international criminal law, he has been a member of Germany’s delegations in the negotiations regarding the International Criminal Court since 1998. In 2019, he was appointed Judge ad hoc at the International Court of Justice in the Case of the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar). Since 2021, he serves as the Special Adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on the Crime of Aggression. He is a Life Member of Clare Hall College at the University of Cambridge, a Member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Northrhine-Westfalia, and the recipient of the 2014 M.C. Bassiouni Justice Award. He holds honorary doctorates from the State University Tbilisi of and the University of Huánuco. In 2018 he was the Francis Lieber Scholar at West Point. He was a Guest Professor at Columbia Law School, Kyoto University, Melbourne Law School, Paris 1 (Sorbonne), University Castilla - La Mancha (Toledo), as well as a Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute in Fiesole.
Research areas & teaching subjects
International Law | International Law of Armed Conflicts | International Criminal Law
Prof. Kreß's research focuses on the international law of peacekeeping in a broad sense, including the law of armed conflict, the law of peacebuilding and international criminal law. His more than 200 publications mainly concern this subject area.
List of publications (selection)
Books and Smaller Monographs (Author)
Gewaltverbot und Selbstverteidigungsrecht nach der Satzung der Vereinten Nationen in Fällen staatlicher Verwicklung in Gewaltakte Privater, 1995, 388 pp. (The Prohibition of the Use of Force and the Right to Self-Defence in Cases of State Involvement in Acts of Force by Private Persons; English summary).
Vom Nutzen eines deutschen Völkerstrafgesetzbuchs, 2000, 40 pp. (Why to enact a German Code of Crimes Under International Law).
Friedensmissionen unter einem Mandat der Vereinten Nationen und Menschenrechte (UN Peace-Operations and Human Rights), Cologne Occasional Papers on International Peace and Security Law, Number 1 (March 2013), 35 pp.
Towards a Truly Universal Invisible College of International Criminal Lawyers, FICHL Occasional Paper Series No. 4 (2014), 37 pp.
Preliminary Observations on the ICC Appeals Chamber’s Judgment of 6 May 2019 in the Jordan Referral re Al-Bashir Appeal, FICHL Occasional Paper Series No. 4 (2019), 30 pp.
Estudios sobre la Parte Especial del Derecho internacional penal. Collection of Essays Translated into Spanish, ed. by Nathalia Bautista Pizzaro, Universidad Externado de Colombia, 2018, 392 pp.
The Ukraine War and the Prohibition of the Use of Force in International Law, FICHL Occasional Paper Series No. 13 (2022), 33 pp. (German Version: Der Ukraine-Krieg und das völkerrechtliche Gewaltverbot, in: Juristische Studiengesellschaft Karlsruhe (Hrsg.), Jahresband 2021/22, pp. 67 to 95; Spanish Version: La Guerra de Ucrania y la prohibición del uso de la fuerza en el derecho internacional (Jimena Sofía Viveros Álvarez, Traductora), Universidad Nacional Autonoma, Mexico, Instituto Investigaciones Jurídicas, Opiniones Técnicas sobre Temas de Relevancia Nacional, núm 66, 2023; Ukrainian Version: Війна в Україні та заборона застосування сили в міжнародному праві, Ukrainian Journal of International Law 2022, pp. 8-23).
Books and Special Issues of Journals (Editor)
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and Domestic Legal Orders, vol. 1, General Aspects and Constitutional Issues, Ripa Fagnano Alto/Baden-Baden 2000, 251 pp. (co-editor Flavia Lattanzi).
International and National Prosecution of Crimes Under International Law: Recent Developments, 2nd ed. 2004, 873 pp. (co-editors Horst Fischer and Sascha Rolf Lüder).
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and Domestic Legal Orders, vol. 2, Constitutional Issues, Cooperation and Enforcement, 2005, 543 pp. (coeditors Flavia Lattanzi, Bruce Broomhall and Valeria Santori).
Grützner/Pötz/Kreß/Gazeas. Internationaler Rechtshilfeverkehr in Strafsachen (International Co-operation on Criminal Matters) lose-leaf collection of legal texts and commentaries in five volumes, 3 rd ed., 2007 et seq., appr. 7400 pp. (co-editor Nikolaos Gazeas).
Aggression: After Kampala. 10th Anniversary Special Edition, Journal of International Criminal Justice 10 (2012/1), 285 pp. (together with Philippa Webb).
10 Jahre Arbeitskreis Völkerstrafrecht. Geburtstagsgaben aus Wissenschaft und Praxis (Essays at the Occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Association of German Speaking International Criminal Lawyers), 2015, 856 pp.
Autonomous Weapons Systems. Law, Ethics, Policy, 2016, 410 S. (together with Nehal Bhuta, Susanne Beck, Robin Geiß, and Hin-Yan Liu).
The Cambridge Library on Aggression: Three Volumes. - Travaux Préparatoires of the Crime of Aggression, 2012, 835 p. (co-editor Stefan Barriga) - The Crime of Aggression: A Commentary, 2 vols., 2017, 1583 pp. (co-editor Stefan Barriga).
Laying the Foundations for a Convention on Crimes Against Humanity, Journal of International Criminal Justice 16 (2018), 282 pp. (together with Sévane Garibian).
Strafrecht und Gesellschaft. Ein kritischer Kommentar zum Werk von Günther Jakobs (Criminal Law and Society. A Critical Commentary on the Work of Günther Jakobs), 2019, 840 pp. (together with Urs Kindhäuser, Michael Pawlik, and CarlFriedrich Stuckenberg).
Paris 1919-1920: Frieden durch Recht? (Paris 1919-1920: Peace Through Law?), 2020, 92 pp.
Necessity and Proportionality in International Peace and Security Law, 2021, 500 pp. (together with Robert Lawless).
In Honour of Benjamin B. Ferencz, 2022, 75 S. (illustrated) (together with Tabasom Djourabi-Asadabadi und Anthea Forsen).
Handbooks, Encyclopedias and Book Chapters
I. Handbooks
Enforcement, in: Antonio Cassese/Paola Gaeta/John R.W.D. Jones (eds.), The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and International Criminal Law, 2002, pp. 1751-1838 (together with Göran Sluiter).
Organisierte Kriminalität (Organized Crime), in: Ulrich Sieber (ed.), Europäisches Strafrecht. Ein Handbuch (European Criminal Law. A Commentary), 2 nd edition, 2014 (together with Nikolaos Gazeas), pp. 356-365.
Terrorismus (Terrorism), in: Ulrich Sieber (ed.), Europäisches Strafrecht. Ein Handbuch (European Criminal Law. A Commentary), 2 nd edition, 2014 (together with Nikolaos Gazeas), pp. 366-383.
The International Court of Justice and the ‘Principle of Non-Use of Force’, in: Marc Weller (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Use of Force and International Law, 2015, pp. 561-604.
Aggression, in: Robin Geiß/Nils Melzer (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the International Law of Global Security, 2021, pp. 232-253.
Los avances de la Corte Penal Internacional: La compleja activación de la jurisdicción sobre el crimen de agresión (The advances of the International Criminal Court: The complex activation of the jurisdiction over the crime of aggression), in: Aitor Martínez Jiménez (ed.), Derecho Penal Internacional. Evolución histórica, régimen jurídico y estudio de casos (International Criminal Law. Historic Evolution, Legal Regime and Case Studies), 2022, pp. 593-620.
II. Entries into Encyclopedias
International Criminal Law, in: R. Wolfrum (ed.), Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Volume V, 2012, pp. 717-732.
Nullum Crimen, Nulla Poena Sine Lege, in: R. Wolfrum (ed.), Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Volume VII, 2012, pp. 889-899.
Crimes de guerre (War Crimes), in: O. Beauvallet (ed.), Dictionnaire encyclopédique de la justice pénale internationale, 2017, pp. 288-296.
III. Book Chapters since 2020
Die Anfänge des Völkerstrafrechts im Spiegel von Reinhard Merkels Völkerstrafrechtsverständnis (The Origins of International Criminal Law in Light of Reinhard Merkel’s concept of International Criminal Law), Jan Christoph Bublitz/Jochen Bung/Anette Grünewald/Dorothea Magnus/Holm Putzke/Jörg Scheinfeld (Hrsg.), Recht – Philosophie – Literatur, Festschrift für Reinhard Merkel zum 70. Geburtstag, 2020, pp. 1345-1359.
Einführung (Introduction), in: Claus Kreß (ed.), Paris 1919-1920: Frieden durch Recht? (Paris 1919-1920: Peace Through Law?), 2020, pp. 11-16.
Die Pariser Friedensverhandlungen und die Ursprünge des Völkerstrafrechts (The Paris Peace Negotiations and the Origins of International Criminal Law, in: Claus 8 Kreß (ed.), Paris 1919-1920: Frieden durch Recht? (Paris 1919-1920: Peace Through Law?), 2020, pp. 61-70.
Le traité de Versailles et les origines du droit international pénal. Une perspective allemande (The Treaty of Versailles and the Origins of International Criminal Law. A German Perspective), in: Emanuel Castellarin/Andrea Hamann (eds.), Le traité de Versailles. Regards franco-allemands en droit international à l’occasion du centenaire (The Treaty of Versailles. French-German International Legal Perspectives at the Occasion of the Centenary), 2020, pp. 101-111.
Hans Kelsen, Hermann Jahrreiß, Carl Schmitt und die Frage von Krieg und Frieden im Völkerrecht (Hans Kelsen, Hermann Jahrreiß, Carl Schmitt and the Question of Peace and War in Internation al Law), in: Hanns Prütting (ed.), Festschrift 100 Jahre Rechtswissenschaftliche Fakultät Universität Köln 2019-2019 (Essays at the Occasion of the Centenary of the Re-Eestablishment of the School of Law at the University of Cologne), 2020, pp. 79-106.
Zu Fritz Bauers „Die Kriegsverbrecher vor Gericht“ (On Fritz Bauer’s „War Criminals on Trial“), in: Florian Jeßberger/Moritz Vormbaum/Boris Burghardt (eds.), Strafrecht und Systemunrecht. Festschrift für Gerhard Werle zum 70. Geburtstag (Criminal Law and Systemic Wrongfulness, Essays in Honour of Gerhard Werle at the Occasion of his 70th Birthday), 2022, pp. 587-598.
Gerhart Baums wacher Sinn für die Bedeutung des Völkerstrafrechts (Gerhart Baum’s Alert Sense for the Significance of International Criminal Law), in: Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (Hrsg.), In liberaler Mission. Gerhart Baum und die deutsche Demokratie (In pursuit of liberalism. Gerhart Baum and the German Democracy), 2022, pp. 120-126.
Kulturgüterschutz vor dem Internationalen Strafgerichtshof (Protection of Cultural Property before the International Criminal Court), in: AIZIWA Keiichi/Japanisches Kulturinstitut Köln (ed.), Gemeinsame Herausforderungen. Ein aktueller Blick auf den deutsch-japanischen Wissenschaftsaustausch anhand von Beiträgen aus den Ringvorlesungen 2021 und 2022 (Common Challenges. A Current Perspective on German-Japanese Scholarly Exchange on the Basis of Contributions Made in the Framework of Public Lectures 2021 and 2022), 2023, pp. 109-123.
a) Der Internationale Strafgerichtshof nach 20 Jahren (The International Criminal Court after 20 Years), in: Philipp B. Donath/Alexander Heger/Moritz Malkmus/Orhan Bayrak (eds.), Der Schutz des Individuums durch das Recht. Festschrift für Rainer Hofmann zum 70. Geburtstag, 2023, pp. 103-113. 37. b) The International Criminal Court: Twenty Years of Its Existence, Justice (70 (2023), 7-10.
Die Europäische Menschenrechtskonvention und das völkerrechtliche Gewaltverbot (The European Convention on Human Rights and the Prohibition of the Use of Force), in: Angelika Nußberger (ed.), Menschenrechte als Alpha und Omega des Rechts. Zur Auseinandersetzung der Fachdisziplinen mit der aktuellen Rechtsprechung zu den Menschenrechten in Europa (Human Rights as the Alpha 9 and Omega of the Law. On the Engagement of the Various Legal Sub-Disciplines with the Jurisprudence on Human Rights in Europe), 2023, pp. 149-168.
Articles in Law Journals since 2020
a) Deutsche Völkerstrafrechtspflege – Betrachtungen aus aktuellem Anlass (German Practice of International Criminal Law – Observations on Current Occasion), Deutsche Richterzeitung 100 (2022), 72-75.
b) Slightly revised reprint and English as well as Arabic version in: Wolfgang Kaleck/Patrick Kroker (Hrsg./eds.), Syrische Staatsfolter vor Gericht/Syrian State Torture on Trial, 2023, pp. 183-190; 169-175; 137-142.
L’assistance d’Etats tiers dans la guerre d’Ucraine au regard du droit international (The Assistance of Third States in the Ukraine War and International Law), 68 Annuaire Français du Droit International (2022), 173-192 (together with).
A Reply to Judge Eboe-Osuji, German Yearbook of International Law 65 (2022), 37-51.
Gerechtigkeit als Utopie? Völkerrechtliche Verbrechen in der Ukraine (Justice as a Utopia? International Crimes in Ukraine), Politikum 9 (2023), 11-17.
Die völkerstrafrechtliche Dimension des russischen Angriffskriegs gegen die Ukraine (The International Criminal Law Dimension of Russia’s War of Aggression Against Ukraine), Kriminalpolitische Zeitschrift 8 (2023), 342-348.
Aktueller Nahostkonflikt und völkerrechtliches Gewaltverbot, Deutsche Richterzeitung (The Current Conflict in the Middle East and the Prohibition of the Use of Force) 101 (2023), 430-435. 82. Aktueller Nahostkonflikt und Völkerrecht der bewaffneten Konflikte, Deutsche Richterzeitung (The Current Conflict in the Middle East and the Law of Armed Conflict) 102 (2024), 110-117 (Together with Rosa-Lena Lauterbach).
Note: A complete list of Prof. Kreß's publications can be found in the "Downloads & Links" field below.
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Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Dr. h.c. Claus Kreß LL.M. (Cambridge)
Director of the Institute for International Peace & Security Law | Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für deutsches und internationales Strafrecht
