The interpretation of the Rome Statute, especially in relation to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) jurisdiction following a state’s withdrawal, is a key point in the ongoing legal debate surrounding the case of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte at the ICC.<\/p>\n
Duterte was surrendered<\/a> to the ICC on March 12, 2025, after being arrested by Philippine authorities and is currently in the Court\u2019s custody. Two prominent legal experts, Dov Jacobs and Leila Sadat, have offered contrasting views on his arrest.<\/p>\n Jacobs is the newest member of Duterte\u2019s defense team. He is a barrister at the British law firm 9BR Chambers<\/a> and was previously on the defense team of Laurent Gbagbo, former President of Ivory Coast, in his ICC crimes against humanity case, which resulted in Gbagbo’s acquittal. According to a Rappler report<\/a>, Sadat is a professor at the Washington University School of Law and once served as special adviser on crimes against humanity to the ICC prosecutor.<\/p>\n Jacobs earlier commented<\/a> on LinkedIn that while ICC\u2019s Pre-Trial Chambre \u201cheld that the Prosecutor could open an investigation after the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute became effective,\u201d he continues \u201cto believe that this decision is legally erroneous and results from a confusion between \u2018jurisdiction\u2019 and \u2018exercise of jurisdiction,\u2019 which is in plain contradiction with the provisions of the Rome Statute and its logic.\u201d<\/p>\n Sadat disagrees, asserting<\/a> that as long as a preliminary examination is initiated before withdrawal, jurisdiction is maintained. In all instances, the International Court of Justice, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the ICC have determined that, unless a specific legal restriction exists, the court’s jurisdiction continues as long as there were ongoing proceedings and the crimes occurred while the state was still a party to the Rome Statute, she explained<\/a> in an interview with Rappler.<\/p>\n Jacobs’ interpretation is a critical part of the defense team\u2019s argument, which seeks<\/a> to have the case dismissed on jurisdictional grounds before the confirmation of charges hearing scheduled for September 23, 2025. In her interview<\/a> with Rappler, Sadat expressed confidence that the charges against Duterte would be confirmed at the said hearing \u00a0based on available evidence.<\/p>\n Duterte is accused<\/a> of being an indirect co-perpetrator in murders related to his so-called \u201cwar on drugs\u201d and the Davao Death Squad (DDS) killings during his time as mayor and vice mayor of Davao City (2011-2016) and as President of the Philippines (2016-2019) \u2013 events that took place while the Philippines was a member of the ICC. Indirect co-perpetration refers to committing a crime through another person, often used for high-ranking officials who don’t directly carry out the criminal acts but are still responsible for them, said<\/a> Sadat.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, ICC\u2019s Pre-Trial Chamber 1 rejected<\/a> Duterte’s request on May 6, 2025 to have two judges excused from adjudicating on the issue of jurisdiction regarding his case. Duterte’s lawyers had filed<\/a> the request on May 1, claiming potential bias from Judges Reine Ad\u00e9laide Sophie Alapini-Gansou and Mar\u00eda del Socorro Flores Liera, who had previously approved the preliminary investigation into Duterte\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n The chamber ruled<\/a> that under the Rome Statute and ICC procedures, a judge must request their excusal directly to the court\u2019s Presidency, not through the parties, making Duterte’s request procedurally improper. Duterte\u2019s lawyer Nicholas Kaufmann, however, submitted on May 12, 2025, a request<\/a> to disqualify the two judges, stating that they had prior involvement in the case when the ICC prosecutor was allowed to initiate the investigation into Duterte\u2019s \u201cwar on drugs\u201d killings in 2021.<\/p>\n On May 2, 2025, Duterte\u2019s defense team has also asked<\/a> the ICC to dismiss the case against him, arguing that there is \u201cno legal basis for the continuation of the proceedings\u201d for lack of jurisdiction. The lawyers of the victims and the prosecution have until June 9 to comment<\/a> on Duterte\u2019s request to junk the case against him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 International Criminal Court<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The interpretation of the Rome Statute, especially in relation to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) jurisdiction following a state’s withdrawal, is a key point in the ongoing legal debate surrounding the case of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte at the ICC. Duterte was surrendered to the ICC on March 12, 2025, after being arrested by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":11088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73,58,62,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aktuelles-en","category-human-rights-news","category-international-institutions","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11288"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11342,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11288\/revisions\/11342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}