MEZINÁRODNÍ SOUDNICTVÍ: NOVÉ ÚKOLY A VÝZVY

CHAPTER 8 Legal Analysis of the Requests for Arrest Warrants of the International Criminal Court in the Situation in Palestine Zuzana Žitná Chapter eight features legal analysis of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court´s request to issue the arrest warrants against leaders of both Israel and Hamas. The allegations stem from Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on the territory of the Jewish state and subsequent Israel’s retaliatory self-defence in Gaza. The request includes Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, marking the first time the ICC Prosecutor’s has gone after leaders of a western-backed state. He has also sought warrants for Hamas’s leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s political leader, Yahya Sinwar, its chief in Gaza, and military commander Mohammed Deif. The Prosecutor said there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed. The case itself has roots in 2015, when the Rome Statute entered into force for Palestine. The ICC’s then Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda began examining possible crimes committed in the Palestinian territories and in 2019 announced that she wanted to launch a full investigation. In 2021, the pre-trial chamber I decided that the Court can exercise its criminal jurisdiction in the situation in the State of Palestine and that the territorial scope of this jurisdiction extends to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This mandate is ongoing and includes escalation of hostilities and violence since 7 October 2023. These were formally included into Prosecutor request to issue warrant arrests against both Hamas and Israel officials. Among the charges brought against the Hamas leaders are hostage-taking, rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture, and murder. Among the charges brought against senior Israeli officials are the deliberate starvation of civilians, intentionally directing attacks against them, and acts of persecution. The suspects are also suspected of committing acts of extermination as a crime against humanity. The following text addresses several questions regarding the Prosecutor’s request to issue the arrest warrants in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while deliberating on legal consequences. CHAPTER 9 Coooperation of the Slovak Republic with the International Criminal Court in the context of Ljubljan-Hague Convention. Daniel Bednár The main purpose of the ninth chapter is to highlight the relatively spartan legislation of the Slovak Republic concerning international judicial cooperation with the International Criminal Court by using comparative method (comparatum). The

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