Professor Marina Aksenova receives the Paul Guggenheim Prize for her book Complicity in International Criminal Law

The Paul Guggenheim Foundation was created in 1979 to honour the memory of Professor Paul Guggenheim. For the nineteenth time, the Paul Guggenheim Prize, amounting to CHF 15’000, is awarded to a monograph on an important theme in the field of public international law (except European law).

“I am very happy that the book received such outstanding recognition: it was a lot of work and I am quite happy about the result”, says Marina Aksenova.

“I am truly honoured to receive Paul Guggenheim Prize. This book is the result of my PhD research at the European University Institute, but the idea was born much earlier, during my time working for the defense teams at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. I am very happy that the book received such outstanding recognition: it was a lot of work and I am quite happy about the result,” says Marina Aksenova, Professor of International Criminal Law and Director of the ARTIJ Initiative.

Marina Aksenova will attend the award ceremony on March 2019 in Geneva, at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, where she and Dr. Vladyslav Lanovoy, author of the publication entitled “Complicity and Its Limits in the Law of International Responsibility" will receive the distinguished award.

About the book

This book tackles one of the most contentious aspects of international criminal law – the modes of liability. At the heart of the discussion is the quest for balance between the accused's individual contribution and the collective nature of mass offending. The principle of legality demands that there exists a well-defined link between the crime and the person charged with it. This is so even in the context of international offending, which often implies 'several degrees of separation' between the direct perpetrator and the person who authorises the atrocity. The challenge is to construct that link without jeopardising the interests of justice. This monograph provides the first comprehensive treatment of complicity within the discipline and beyond. Extensive analysis of the pertinent statutes and jurisprudence reveals gaps in interpreting accessorial liability. Simultaneously, the study of complicity becomes a test for the general methods and purposes of international criminal law. The book exposes problems with the sources of law and demonstrates the absence of clearly defined sentencing and policy rationales, which are crucial tools in structuring judicial discretion.