Biography
Agius graduated a B.A. in English, Italian and Economics in 1964, a degree as a notary public in 1968 and a doctorate in law (LL.D) in 1969, all at the University of Malta.
He went on to practice as a lawyer and served as a legal counsel for the Times of Malta and the Bank of Valletta. In 1977 he was appointed as a presiding judge for both civil and criminal cases and until 2001 he served in several Maltese courts, including the appellate court, the criminal court and the constitutional court.
From 1999 to 2008 he was also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. He has been a Judge of the Criminal Chamber since 2001 and Vice President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. In 2004 he was re-elected as a judge of the tribunal for a period of nine years. He was the presiding judge in the trials of Radoslav Brđanin, Naser Orić and the multiple case of Cvjetko Popović. Since 2010, he has also been handling higher appeal cases from the joint appeal chamber with the Rwanda Tribunal. Here he was presiding judge in the appeal case of Tharcisse Renzaho and is still so in the cases of Vlastimir Đorđević and Dominique Ntawukulilyayo. Since its inception in July 2013, he is also a judge of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.
In addition to his career as a judge, Agius was an international envoy for Malta at various meetings in the field of criminal law and legal order. For example, from 1990 to 2001 he was leader of the Maltese delegation at all annual meetings of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna. He also represented his government for four consecutive years at the UN Congresses on Crime Prevention and Treatment of Offenders. From 1996 to 1998 he represented Malta at the establishment of the International Criminal Court.
Agius has spawned a number of publications and served on the editorial board of the Mediterranean Journal of Human Rights from 1998 to 2004 published by the University of Malta.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations established to prosecute serious crimes committed during the Yugoslav Wars, and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal was an ad hoc court located in The Hague, Netherlands.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 955 in order to judge people responsible for the Rwandan genocide and other serious violations of international law in Rwanda, or by Rwandan citizens in nearby states, between 1 January and 31 December 1994. The court eventually convicted 85 individuals at a cost of $1.3 billion.
Theodor Meron is a former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Presiding Judge of the Appeals Chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the ICTY. He was elected President of the ICTY by his fellow judges on 19 October 2011, and again on 1 October 2013.
Fausto Pocar is an Italian jurist. He is professor emeritus of International Law at the University of Milan, where he also taught Private International Law and European Law, and where he served many years as Faculty Dean and Vice-Rector. From 1984-2000, he was an elected member of the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations, serving as the committee's chair from 1991-92.
International criminal law is a body of public international law designed to prohibit certain categories of conduct commonly viewed as serious atrocities and to make perpetrators of such conduct criminally accountable for their perpetration. The core crimes under international law are genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. This article also discusses crimes against international law, which may not be part of the body of international criminal law.
The tribunals of first instance are the main trial courts in the judicial system of Belgium. The tribunals of first instance are courts of general jurisdiction; in the sense that they have original jurisdiction over all types of cases not explicitly attributed to other courts. They handle a wide range of civil cases, criminal cases, and cases under the scope of juvenile law and family law. They also hear appeals against the judgements of the police tribunals and justices of the peace. The judgements of the tribunals of first instance can be appealed to the courts of appeal in turn. There is a tribunal of first instance for each of the twelve judicial arrondissements ("districts") of Belgium, except for the arrondissement of Brussels. The arrondissement of Brussels has two tribunals of first instance, a Dutch-speaking one and a French-speaking one, due to the sensitive linguistical situation in the area. The territories of the current judicial arrondissements largely coincide with those of the provinces of Belgium. Most of the tribunals of first instance have multiple geographical divisions, with each having their own seat. As of 2020, the 13 tribunals of first instance have 27 seats in total. Further below, an overview is provided of all seats of the tribunals of first instance per arrondissement.
Hassan Bubacar Jallow is a Gambian judge who has served as Chief Justice of the Gambia since February 2017. He was the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) from 2003 to 2015, and Prosecutor of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) from 2012 to 2016. He served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General from 1984 to 1994 under President Dawda Jawara.
Daniel David Ntanda Nsereko is a Ugandan judge and legal scholar. He was a member of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from 2008 to 2012, and currently serves as a judge on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
Gabrielle Anne Kirk McDonald is an American lawyer and jurist who, until her retirement in October 2013, served as an American arbitrator on the Iran–United States Claims Tribunal seated in The Hague.
The Judiciary of Spain consists of Courts and Tribunals, composed of judges and magistrates (Justices), who have the power to administer justice in the name of the King of Spain.
Iain Bonomy, Lord Bonomy, is a former Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland, sitting in the High Court of Justiciary and the Inner House of the Court of Session from 2010 to 2012. From 2004 to 2009, he was a Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
O-Gon Kwon is a noted international South Korean judge, best known for being one of the three judges in the trial of Slobodan Milošević. He also sat on the bench for the trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić.
Brenda J. Hollis, a citizen of the United States, was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone on 16 February 2010, replacing Stephen Rapp. Hollis was the Chief Prosecutor at the Special Court and served as the lead prosecutor in the trial and appeal of the case against Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia. Hollis currently serves as the Prosecutor of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone, which replaced the Special Court in December 2013. She also serves as the Reserve International Co-Prosecutor for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, and works as a consultant in international criminal law and procedure.
Mass atrocity crimes have historically referred to the three legally defined international crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Ethnic cleansing is widely regarded as a fourth mass atrocity crime by legal scholars and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the field, despite not yet being recognized as an independent crime under international law.
Sir Burton P. C. Hall, KSS, KHS is a Judge of the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. He is the presiding judge in the case of the Prosecutor v. Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović. He previously served as a Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, a position he was elected to in August, 2009. Hall served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Bahamas on 1 February 1991 and then as a Justice of Court of Appeal of The Bahamas from April 1997. On 5 September 2001 he was confirmed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Bahamas, a position he occupied until 2009.
The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, also referred to as the IRMCT or the Mechanism, is an international court established by the United Nations Security Council in 2010 to perform the remaining functions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) following the completion of those tribunals' respective mandates.
Alphonsus "Alphons" Martinus Maria Orie is a Dutch jurist specialising in criminal law and a former judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), who presided over many Trial Chamber cases at the ICTY.
Phillip Rapoza is a retired American judge. He was chief justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court until his retirement in 2015. He was appointed to this court in 1998 and became the Chief Justice in 2006. He has worked internationally, serving on the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in Timor-Leste and heading a UN Criminal Justice Advisory Team in Haiti. He was also involved in programs in Cambodia relating to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Although retired from the judiciary, Rapoza remains active in the field of international justice and is president of the International Penal and Penitentiary Foundation.
Gabrielle Louise McIntyre (Australian) is an international legal practitioner, jurist, and the Chairperson of the Seychelles' Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission.
William H. Sekule is a Tanzanian judge who served on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania between May 1995 and March 2013. He was the presiding judge of the ICTR Trial Chamber II from June 1995 to June 1999 and from June 2001 to March 2013. He is a graduate of the University of Dar es Salaam of the University of East Africa, where he has also served on the Board of the Faculty of Law.
Malta 