This textbook explores international criminal law and its application to domestic prosecutions of international crimes.

International criminal law has developed considerably in the last decade and a half, resulting in a complex and re-invigorated discipline. This has impacted directly on the popularity of the study of the subject, particularly on postgraduate law degrees. This textbook serves these courses by providing an introduction to the principles of international criminal law and processes. Written by four international lawyers with experience of teaching international criminal law, it is accessible yet sophisticated in its approach. It covers substantive international criminal law, the institutions designed to enforce it and their procedures, and the international law applicable to domestic prosecutions of international crimes. It will be essential reading for students and teachers of international criminal law. In addition to practitioners and researchers in the field, and in related fields such as criminal law, students of international law and international relations will find this introduction invaluable.

1. What is international criminal law?
2. The objectives of international criminal law
3. Jurisdiction
4. National prosecutions of international crimes
5. State Cooperation with respect to national proceedings
6. The history of international criminal prosecutions: Nuremberg and Tokyo
7. The ad hoc international criminal tribunals
8. The International Criminal Court
9. Other courts with international elements
10. Genocide
11. Crimes against humanity
12. War crimes
13. Aggression
14. Transnational crimes, terrorism and torture
15. General principles of liability
16. Defences/grounds for excluding criminal responsibility
17. Procedures of international criminal investigations and prosecutions
18. Sentencing, penalties and reparations to victims
19. State cooperation with international courts and tribunals
20. Immunities
21. Conclusions: the future of international criminal law.