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Conference: "Rethinking the Crime of Aggression: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives" | Marburg 20. to 22. September 2018

From September 20 to 22, 2018, the International Research and Documentation Centre for War Crimes Trials (ICWC) at Philipps University Marburg, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Stefanie Bock (Faculty of Law) and Prof. Dr. Eckart Conze (Faculty of History and Cultural Studies), organized a conference on the topic “Rethinking the Crime of Aggression: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives.”

The organizers took the extension of the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction, which came into effect on July 17, 2018, as an opportunity to initiate an intensive, interdisciplinary, and international dialogue on the topic of war of aggression and the crime of aggression. This dialogue not only addressed the genesis of the current situation but also explored future applications and perspectives. Following a keynote on the development of the crime of aggression and its adjudication history, the conference featured six thematically connected panels that examined various aspects of state aggression and its prosecution. In addition to fundamental conceptual frameworks and the actual background, conditions of emergence, and dynamics of inter-state violence, the panels discussed approaches to regulating and legitimizing acts of aggression, as well as the possibilities and limits of their criminal sanctioning. All panels were interdisciplinary, involving experts from law, history, social sciences such as political science, sociology, and social psychology, as well as economics.

The multifaceted contributions and discussions revealed that a multiperspective approach fosters a comprehensive understanding of the crime of aggression within its legal, historical, political, and socio-cultural contexts. In particular, it became clear that the legal definition of aggression is very narrow and, in some respects, overly simplistic, failing to adequately account for actual developments over recent decades, including the growing significance of non-state actors and changes in political power structures.