Karl: I am not sitting judge

THE EDITOR: I am grateful to your correspondent Razzman Ivan (Newsday Section A page 14 Sunday March 13, 2005) for his question concerning my status as a Judge of the International Criminal Court. He has provide me with the opportunity to clarify my position. I was elected a judge of the newly inaugurated International Criminal Court (ICC) in February 2002. I was sworn in on March 2002 and assigned to the Trial Division of the Court. There are two other divisions namely the Appellate Division and the Pre-Trial (Investigations and Inquiries) Division. Because the Court is a new court, none of the matters under investigation has become ripe for trial. The result is that although I have been assigned to the Trial Division there are no cases as yet to try.

Consequently, I have been put on a non-full-time attachment to the Court. Judges in the Pre-Trial and Appellate Divisions have already been engaged full-time in The Hague and reside there. As soon as matters have been processed and sent to the Trial Division, the judges assigned to that Division will be put on full-time attachment. This has not happened as yet. The result is that of the six judges assigned to the Trial Division, three, of whom I am one, are non-full-time and therefore not required to be resident in The Hague. There are other consequences of course. Non-full-time judges are not paid a salary by the Court although they do receive a monthly honoarium of euros 1,666.66 per month.

So far I have been required at the Court in The Hague quite frequently for short periods to attend meetings of judges concerning drafting and procedural matters. I am not a sitting judge as yet. As soon as I am appointed a full-time judge, I will be required to reside in The Hague and will therefore cease practising in the courts and not return to the bar as an advocate. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Article 40 (3) states: 3. Judges required to serve on a full-time basis at the seat of the Court shall not engage in any other occupation of a professional nature.

KARL T HUDSON-PHILLIPS, QC
Port-of-Spain