Available in Russian
Author: Andrey Shchukin
DOI: 10.21128/2226-2059-2023-2-115-138
Keywords: universal civil jurisdiction; access to court; extraterritorial jurisdiction; international liability; international crimes; aliens; protection of human rights; compensation for material damage
The issues of protection of human and civil rights and freedoms, liability in the form of compensation for material damage caused as a result of international crimes, and restoration of violated rights have a special place in the wide range of scholarly interests of Professor L.N.Galenskaya. Her academic anniversary was celebrated in 2022 in recognition of her major contribution to the development of international legal scholarship. Through the lens of L.N.Galenskaya’s research, the paper sheds light on individual States’ mechanisms for access to justice to ensure that the victim of an international crime committed outside the State’s borders has the right to compensation for material damage. The work provides selected examples from the practice of international and national courts to illustrate the role that internal mechanisms can play in compensation for such harm. In the modern world, more and more attention is being paid to the rights of victims to compensation for harm and not only to the punishment of perpetrators. History shows that victims unable to gain compensation for international crimes within the country where the crimes were committed have appealed to courts of foreign states, filing lawsuits based on principles of jurisdiction other than territoriality. This additional possibility is related to the doctrine of universal civil jurisdiction. Victims of international crimes are subct to state protection, they should be given the opportunity to seek restoration of their rights and legitimate interests by their own actions, including in civil proceedings. Legislation of the Russian Federation should enshrine the rule of universal civil jurisdiction of Russian courts to consider damage claims by victims of an international crime.
About the author: Andrey Shchukin – Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D.) in Law, Leading Researcher, Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia.
Citation: Shchukin a. (2023) Universal’naya grazhdanskaya yurisdiktsiya na strazhe interesov zhertv mezhdunarodnykh prestupleniy [Universal civil jurisdiction protecting the interests of victims of international crimes]. Mezhdunarodnoe pravosudie, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 115–138. (In Russian).
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