2014 M.C. Bassiouni Justice Award winner
Claus Kreß
Professor Claus Kreß (Dr. jur. Cologne; LL.M. Cantab.) was granted the 2014 M.C. Bassiouni Justice Award in Delhi on 28 November 2014 in recognition of (a) his distinguished service to the academic discipline of international criminal law, through a considerable number of high quality academic publications, speeches, teaching, and research supervision; (b) his intellectual leadership in the process to operationalize the crime of aggression in the context of the International Criminal Court; (c) his expert advisory service, as an academic, for the International Criminal Court on the Regulations of the Court and for the German Government on legal questions concerning the International Criminal Court; (d) his global, unprejudiced mind-set, rigour and fairness in his academic work on international criminal law; and (e) the manner in which he has conducted his academic service in international criminal law with distinct temperance, tact and trustworthiness. The 2014 Award was dedicated to “outstanding academic service to international criminal law”.
Professor Kreß holds the Chair for German and International Criminal Law and he is Director of the Institute of International Peace and Security Law at the University of Cologne. His prior practice was in the German Federal Ministry of Justice on matters of criminal law and international law. Since 1998, he has been representing Germany in the negotiations regarding the International Criminal Court. He was member of the Expert Group on the German Code of Crimes under International Law (2000-2001) and he acted as War Crimes Expert for the Prosecutor General for East Timor (2001), as Head of the ICC’s Drafting Committee for the Regulations of the Court (2004) and as a sub-coordinator in the negotiations on the crime of aggression. Claus Kreß is co-editor of several law journals, including the Journal of International Criminal Justice. He is Life Member of Clare Hall College at the University of Cambridge and Member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Northrhine-Westfalia.
Professor Kreß was nominated in separate submissions by H.R.H. Ambassador Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein and Ambassador Christian Wenaweser; Professor Darryl Robinson, Professor Kevin Jon Heller, Professor Jens David Ohlin, Professor Frédéric Mégret and Dr. Sarah Nouwen; Judge Angelika Nußberger, Dr. Roy Schondorf (Deputy Attorney General (International Law), Israel), Dr. Carrie McDougall (Legal Specialist, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia) and Assistant Professor Demelsa Benito Sánchez; and Professor KIM Young Sok.
The 2014 Award Committee consisted of Professor Emeritus M.C. Bassiouni, Professor Olympia Bekou (Nottingham University), Mr. Gilbert Bitti (Senior Legal Adviser, International Criminal Court), Assistant Professor CHEAH Wui Ling (National University of Singapore), Mr. Arne Willy Dahl (former Judge Advocate General, Norway), Mr. Alf Butenschøn Skre (Secretary), and Professor Morten Bergsmo (Chair). Its decision was made by consensus.
You find the edited speech made by Professor Kreß on the occasion of the presentation of the Award here as a publication in the FICHL Occasional Paper Series.
