International tribunals and the possibility of creating a tribunal for the crimes of the Russian Federation: historical analogies

Abstract

Since the outbreak of the full-scale aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine in February 2022, the issue of bringing perpetrators to justice has become one of the key challenges for international justice. Numerous war crimes, crimes against humanity and concealed acts of genocide committed by the russian military and its leadership on the territory of Ukraine require an update of international approaches to the investigation, prosecution, and punishment of perpetrators.
The article examines the historical experience of such effective justice mechanisms as international tribunals, in particular the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The author analyses the legal precedents that can and should be used to develop a special tribunal for the crime of aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine.
Attention is paid to certain issues of legal mechanisms used to prosecute persons responsible for international crimes, including the doctrine of joint criminal enterprise, the concept of individual responsibility for crimes in time of war and the issue of immunity of senior officials.
The article draws attention to the fact that, given the specifics of the Russian-Ukrainian war, including the ideological basis of aggression, destruction of Ukrainian cultural identity and blatant violations of international law, none of the previous international tribunals of the past can be directly and without modification applied to the crimes of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
At the same time, the future tribunal for the crimes of the Russian Federation must take into account the previous experience of international tribunals of the past, adapting it to Ukrainian realities and developing new approaches to bring perpetrators to justice for crimes committed during the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Thus, the historical lessons of international tribunals should become the basis for the formation of a new judicial institution– a special tribunal to combat crimes during the Russian-Ukrainian war.