The Principle of Legality in International Criminal Law

This short piece contains remarks made at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law on the topic of the principle of legality in international criminal law (nullum crimen sine lege or NCSL). Summarizing conclusions from a longer piece (Crimen Sine Lege: Judicial Lawmaking at the Intersection of Law & Morals, 97 Geo. L. J. 119 (2008)), this piece argues that the NCSL jurisprudence does not compromise the fundamental fairness of modern international criminal law proceedings because it is largely consistent with the international formulations of the principle, authoritative interpretations emerging from institutions charged with enforcing human rights protections, and the purposes underlying the NCSL principle.