The Influence of International Criminal Law on the National Criminal Law of Sovereign States

Criminal Law Literacy - This article explains international criminal law and its influence on national criminal law at the domestic (state) level.

International Criminal Law is a collection of criminal law rules and principles that regulate international crimes. Thus, the object is international crimes, where the intended crimes are all internationally prohibited acts and all intended crimes have cross-border aspects to the territory of independent and sovereign states with one another. The various types of international crimes have been accommodated in a written international legal formulation which is expressed in the form of agreements, conventions or statutes.

Criminal law International regulates law enforcement for crimes that have been designated as international crimes, the adjudication of which can be carried out nationally or internationally. Law enforcement of international criminal law is based on national courts, and certain crimes can be tried internationally. The function of international criminal law is, among other things, to provide solutions to international criminal problems.

The reality of international criminal law enforcement with courts that have been accommodated with international courts is realized by the existence of the International Military Tribunal Nuremberg (IMTN), Hybrid Tribunal, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), International Military Tribunal Tokyo (IMTT).

Meanwhile, the enforcement of international crimes carried out by national courts, for example in Indonesia, includes the Human Rights Court and the prosecution of perpetrators of terrorism. Gross Human Rights Crimes and Terrorism have been designated as international crimes. The Human Rights Court is regulated in Law No. 26 of 2000 concerning the Human Rights Court which provides the legal basis for prosecuting perpetrators of serious human rights crimes in Indonesia and Law No. 15 of 2003 concerning the eradication of terrorism.

Does International Criminal Law interfere with National Criminal Law?

Based on the examples of international courts and national courts mentioned above, it proves that criminal acts (crimes), even though these crimes are regulated as international crimes, national courts in national criminal law still have the right to regulate them and try the perpetrators of these crimes based on the provisions of national laws and regulations that exist in each country in national criminal law.

These things also prove that International Criminal Law does not interfere with a country's national criminal law. International criminal law actually originates from two fields of law, namely international law which regulates matters related to criminal justice and national criminal law which contains international dimensions.

International criminal law itself is coordinative in nature, which means that international criminal law aligns the interests of each country (national law in general) equally with one another.

International criminal law also does not interfere with relations between independent and sovereign countries because international criminal law has a principle of non-intervention, which based on this principle, an independent and sovereign country may not take actions of interference in various domestic problems of other independent and sovereign countries unless it is permitted and approved by the country concerned.

This principle of non-intervention in international criminal law is applied by Indonesia in helping to resolve the Cambodian problem by holding the Jakarta Informal Meeting (JIM) which became a means of peace negotiations between Cambodia and Vietnam assisted by Indonesia.

During the implementation of the conflict between Cambodia and Vietnam, the Indonesian state was only a mediator in these negotiations so Indonesia did not interfere in the decisions made between the two countries but only helped mediate the two countries in conflict and the Indonesian state remained steadfast in not interfering in the two countries.

*This article is the personal opinion of the author and does not represent the views of the editors Criminal Law Literacy Indonesia.