Hans-Peter Kaul (25 July 1943 – 21 July 2014) was a German
international law
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
scholar and former
diplomat
A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...
and international
judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
. From 11 March 2003 until 1 July 2014, he served as
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
at the
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals ...
in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
. At the ICC, Judge Kaul was President of the Pre-Trial Division from 2004 until March 2009 and again in 2014, and he was the Court's Vice-President from 2009 to 2012. In 2014, he resigned from the ICC for health reasons but his condition became worse and he died on 21 July 2014.
Early life and education
Kaul was born on 25 July 1943 in
Glashütte
Glashütte [] is a town in Saxony, Germany, known as the birthplace of the German watchmaking industry and has a population of about 7,000. Historically, it was first mentioned in a document circa 1445. In January 2008, the former municipality Re ...
,
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
.
[Curriculum Vitae of Judge Dr. jur. h. c. Hans-Peter Kaul]
He spent part of his childhood in Glashütte and
Zwickau
Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ' ...
, Saxony, in
East-Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...
, then Soviet occupation zone. In 1952, he fled with his parents to
West-Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...
.
After his military duty from 1963 to 1967, reaching the rank of captain, he studied law at
Heidelberg University
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
, where he completed his First State Examination in 1971. He then attended the
École Nationale d'Administration
The École nationale d'administration (generally referred to as ENA, en, National School of Administration) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by President of France, President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the Constitu ...
in Paris from 1972 to 1973. He passed his Second State Examination in Law (equivalent to admission to the bar) in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
in 1975.
Kaul joined the
at Heidelberg from 1973 to 1975, as a research assistant to Prof. Dr.
Hermann Mosler
Hermann Mosler (December 26, 1912 - December 4, 2001) was a German legal academic and judge. Mosler was a judge at the European Court of Human Rights from 1959 to 1980 and at the International Court of Justice from 1976 to 1985. Additionally, Mosl ...
(who later was from 1976 to 1985 Judge at the
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...
in The Hague). In 1974, Kaul attended the
Academy of International Law in The Hague.
Career
In 1975, Kaul entered the German diplomatic service.
[ He served as Consul and Press Attaché at the German Embassy to Norway from 1977 to 1980. From 1980 to 1984, he worked for the Division for UN Affairs (Security Council, General Assembly) at the Federal Foreign Office in Bonn, Germany. He was sent then to Tel Aviv, Israel, where he served as Press Counsellor and Spokesman at the German Embassy from 1984 to 1986. Between 1986 and 1990, he served as Political Counsellor at the German Embassy to the United States, Washington. In 1990, back in Bonn, he was appointed Deputy Head of the Division for Near Eastern Affairs at the Federal Foreign Office. In 1993, he returned to the United States as First Counsellor for the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations, New York, during Germany’s non-permanent membership in the Security Council (1995/1996). From 1996 until 2002, he served as Head of the Division for International Law of the Federal Foreign Office in Bonn.
From 1996 to 2003, Kaul was Head of the German delegation in the negotiation process of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. He played a key role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court. In 2002, he became Ambassador and Foreign Office Commissioner for the International Criminal Court.
Kaul was elected as the first German judge of the International Criminal Court in 2003,] then re-elected in 2006 for a second term of nine years.[ Judge Kaul was a member of the Pre-Trial Division, assigned to both Pre-Trial Chamber I and Pre-Trial Chamber II, dealing with the situations in Libya, Côte d'Ivoire, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Darfur (Sudan), the Central African Republic, Kenya and Mali.
]
Activities
Judge Kaul published extensively on the topic of public international law in general, international criminal law and the crime of aggression in particular.[
From 1997, Judge Kaul played a major role in international efforts to criminalize aggressive war-making, together with former US Nuremberg prosecutors Benjamin Ferencz (b. 1920) and Whitney R. Harris (1912–2010). It is widely recognized that without his leadership, the crime of aggression would not have been included in the list of international crimes set out in the Rome Statute of the ICC.
After a long professional life as a diplomat, international lawyer, and since 2003 as a judge of the International Criminal Court, Judge Kaul reaffirmed many times that aggressive war-making, the “supreme international crime” according to the Nuremberg Judgement, and the use of illegal armed force inevitably lead, time and again, to mass atrocities. Judge Kaul strongly believed that there can be no successful prevention of war crimes and crimes against humanity without the effective criminalization and prosecution of aggressive war-making.]
On 3 June 2013, Judge Kaul was invited by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to take part in the depositing of the German instrument of ratification with regard to the Kampala amendments on the crime of aggression at the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations.
Judge Kaul was a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression (from June 2012).[ He chaired the International Expert Advisory Council of the Founding Office: International Academy Nuremberg Principles (March 2011).
He was a member of the Presidency of the United Nations Association of Germany.
Judge Kaul gave over 130 speeches, lectures and interviews (print media, radio and television) on the International Criminal Court, international humanitarian law, international criminal law and the crime of aggression in Germany, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, the United States, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, China, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
In May 2006, he was awarded the Integration Prize by the Foundation Apfelbaum, Cologne, and in November 2008, he received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws, Faculty of Law of the University of Cologne.]
References
External links
*http://www.haguejusticeportal.net/index.php?id=12462
*https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/politics/global-issues-law/hans-peter-kaul-judge-at-the-international-criminal-court-in-the
*https://dgap.org/en/node/22407
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaul, Hans-Peter
1943 births
2014 deaths
People from Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge
21st-century German judges
International Criminal Court judges
German diplomats
International law scholars
Heidelberg University alumni
Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law people
Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
German judges of international courts and tribunals