The Arms Trade and International Criminal Law: Reframing Accountability for Complicit Weapon Suppliers...

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Tomas Hamilton (Adjunct Professor, Adjunct Professor, University of Amsterdam)

The Arms Trade and International Criminal Law

Reframing Accountability for Complicit Weapon Suppliers

Tomas Hamilton (Adjunct Professor, Adjunct Professor, University of Amsterdam)

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English

Oxford University Press
27 February 2025

Arms negotiation & control; Arms trade; International humanitarian law; International criminal law

Series: Oxford Monographs in International Humanitarian & Criminal Law

Despite the establishment of UN embargoes, the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), and the EU Common Position, arms export regulation suffers from significant legal and practical limitations. This book critically evaluates the existing body of 'Arms Trade Law', highlighting its inadequacies in preventing weapons from reaching perpetrators of mass violence. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and empirical research to assess the perspectives of judges and lawyers, it also explores the International Criminal Court's narrow focus on prosecuting political and military leaders. Arguing that institutional attitudes and commitments contribute to a legal culture that obscures the potential for an arms trader case, the book illustrates these dynamics through a case study of the UN Security Council's response to the Second Congo War and the ICC's investigations in the DRC Situation, elucidating missed opportunities to enforce accountability against the entire spectrum of actors responsible for international crimes.

Through detailed examination of the arms trade's complexities, The Arms Trade and International Criminal Law foregrounds the structural causes of atrocity and argues for broader accountability. It investigates how individuals-including corporate executives, state officials, and arms traffickers-can be held directly accountable for atrocities under international law, even when their actions are geographically or causally distant from the violence itself. Furthermore, by advancing a specific interpretation of the actus reus and mens rea elements of accomplice liability under Article 25 of the Rome Statute, this book argues for a robust legal basis upon which the ICC can prosecute arms traders. It therefore underscores how international criminal law can complement existing regulations by leveraging its expressive function to condemn all those who profit from atrocity.

By: Tomas Hamilton (Adjunct Professor Adjunct Professor University of Amsterdam)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 165mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 538g
ISBN: 9780192868671
ISBN 10: 0192868675
Series: Oxford Monographs in International Humanitarian & Criminal Law
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 27 February 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

1: Introduction 2: Complementing Export Regulation with Criminal Accountability 3: 'Arms Trade Law' and the Potential of International Justice 4: The Actus Reus of a Complicit Arms Transfer 5: The Mens Rea of a Complicit Arms Transfer 6: Observing ICC Legal Culture on the Arms Trade 7: Imagining the Arms Trade in ICC Case Selection 8: Investigating the Arms Trade in the Second Congo War 9: Overlooking Arms Brokers in the ICC's Situation in the DRC 10: Conclusion

Tomas Hamilton is an international lawyer at Guernica 37 Chambers in London and Adjunct Professor at the University of Amsterdam. He specialises in international human rights and criminal law. Tomas holds a BA (Hons) from the University of Oxford, an LLB from the College of Law, an LLM from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Law from King's College London. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2011. Tomas has worked as a Human Rights Officer at the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, Senior Legal Consultant at the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT) at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC), Associate Legal Officer at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, and at a leading criminal law firm in London.