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36 Pace Int'l L. Rev. [1] (2024)

handle is hein.journals/pacinlwr36 and id is 1 raw text is: Volume 36 Issue 1 AGGRESSOR STATUS AND ITS IMPACT ON INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW CASE SELECTION Nancy Amoury Combs* ABSTRACT' The laws of war apply equally to all parties to a conflict; thus, a party that violates international law by launching a war is granted the same international humanitarian law rights as a party that is required to defend against the illegal war. This doctrine-known as the equal application doctrine-has been sharply critiqued, particularly by philosophers, who claim the doctrine to be morally indefensible. Lawyers and legal academics, by contrast, defend the equal application doctrine because they reasonably fear that applying different rules to different warring parties will sharply reduce states' willingness to comply with the international humanitarian law system as a whole. In the two works on which this symposium contribution is based, I have sought to bridge this divide by shifting focus from the application of international humanitarian law rules to the enforcement of those rules. In particular, I developed the unequal enforcement doctrine, which would retain the equal application doctrine but would reduce its unfairness by disproportionately prosecuting international criminal offenders from aggressor states. I have developed and defended that doctrine in two full length law review articles, and I * Nancy Amoury Combs is the Ernest W. Goodrich Professor of Law, Robert E. and Elizabeth S. Scott Research Professor of Law, Director Human Security Law Center, William & Mary Law School. I am grateful to Aidan Rossman for her valuable assistance and to the participants of the Pace International Law Review triennial symposium for their useful comments. Any mistakes are my own. 1 This symposium piece summarizes two of my recent articles: Nancy Amoury Combs, Unequal Enforcement ofthe Law: Targeting Aggressors for Mass Atrocity Prosecutions, 61 ARIZ. L. REV. 155, 155-204 (2019) [hereinafter Combs, Unequal Enforcement ofthe Law]; Nancy Amoury Combs, Holding Aggressors Responsible for International Crimes: Implementing the Unequal Enforcement Doctrine, 57 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. (forthcoming 2024) [hereinafter Combs, Holding Aggressors Responsible for International Crimes1. Volume 36 Issuel1

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