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--->; certain wars may be unlawful but not aggressive (a war to settle a [[Territorial dispute|boundary dispute]] where the initiator has a reasonable claim, and limited aims, is one example).
In the judgment of the [[Nuremberg Trials|International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg]], which followed [[World War II]], "War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."<ref name="judgment">{{citation | title=Judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Trial of German Major War Criminals: The Nazi Regime in Germany |url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/judnazi.asp#common |author=The International Military Tribunal for Germany |date=1946-09-30 |publisher=The Avalon Project, Yale University}}</ref>
Article 39 of the [[United Nations Charter]] provides that the UN Security Council shall determine the existence of any act of aggression and "shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security".
The [[Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court]] refers to the [[crime of aggression]] as one of the "most serious crimes of concern to the international community", and provides that the crime falls within the jurisdiction of the [[International Criminal Court]] (ICC). However, the Rome Statute stipulates that the ICC may not exercise its jurisdiction over the crime of aggression until such time as the states parties agree on a definition of the crime and set out the conditions under which it may be prosecuted. At the [[Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court|Kampala Review Conference]] on 11 June 2010, a total of 111 [[States parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court|State Parties to the Court]] agreed by [[Consensus decision-making|consensus]] to adopt a [[Resolution (law)|resolution]] accepting the definition of the crime and the conditions for the exercise of [[jurisdiction]] over this crime.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/Resolutions/RC-Res.6-ENG.pdf|title=Resolution RC/Res.6 !|accessdate=14 May 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320072358/http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/Resolutions/RC-Res.6-ENG.pdf|archivedate=20 March 2012}}</ref> The relevant amendments to the Statute, however has not been entered into force yet as of May 14, 2012.
Possibly the first trial for waging aggressive war is that of the Sicilian king [[Conradin]] in 1268.<ref>{{cite book|title=An introduction to international criminal law and procedure|last=Cryer (et al)|first=Robert|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-521-13581-8|edition=2nd|location=Cambridge [UK]|pages=312}}</ref>
The phrase is distinctly modern and diametrically opposed to the prior legal international standard of "[[might makes right]]", under the medieval and pre-historic beliefs of [[right of conquest]]. Since the [[Korean War]] of the early 1950s, waging such a [[war]] of aggression is a crime under the [[customary international law]].{{Citation needed|[[Special:Contributions/150.237.57.228|150.237.57.228]] ([[User talk:150.237.57.228|talk]]) 16:14, 5 July 2019 (UTC)|date=July 2019}}.
==Definitions==
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The Definition of Aggression also does not cover acts by international organisations. The two key military alliances at the time of the definition's adoption, [[NATO]] and the [[Warsaw Pact]], were non-state parties and thus were outside the scope of the definition.<ref>Ingrid Detter Delupis, ''The Law of War'', pp. 69–70. Cambridge University Press, 2000</ref> Moreover, the definition does not deal with the responsibilities of individuals for acts of aggression. It is widely perceived as an insufficient basis on which to ground individual criminal prosecutions.<ref>L. F. Damrosch, "Enforcing International Law through Non-forcible Measures", p. 202. ''Recueil De Cours/Collected Courses'', Académie de Droit International de La Haye, 1998</ref>
While this Definition of Aggression has often been cited by opponents of conflicts such as the 1999 [[Kosovo War]] and the 2003 [[Iraq War]], it has no binding force in [[international law]]. The doctrine of ''[[Nulla poena sine lege]]'' means that, in the absence of binding international law on the subject of aggression, no penalty exists for committing acts in contravention of the definition. It is only recently that heads of state have been indicted over acts committed in wartime, in the cases of [[Slobodan Milošević]] of [[Serbia]] and [[Charles
The definition is not binding on the Security Council. The [[Charter of the United Nations|United Nations Charter]] empowers the General Assembly to make recommendations to the [[United Nations Security Council]] but the Assembly may not dictate to the Council. The resolution accompanying the definition states that it is intended to provide guidance to the Security Council to aid it "in determining, in accordance with the Charter, the existence of an act of aggression".<ref>[[Yoram Dinstein]], ''War, Aggression and Self-Defence'', p. 118. Cambridge University Press, 2003</ref> The Security Council may apply or disregard this guidance as it sees fit. Legal commentators argue that the Definition of Aggression has had "no visible impact" on the deliberations of the Security Council.<ref>M. C. Bassiouni and B. B. Ferencz, "The Crime against Peace", ''International Criminal Law'', I, 313, 334 (M.C. Bassiouni ed., 2nd ed., 1999)</ref>
===Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court===
{{Main|Crime of aggression}}
The [[Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court]] lists the crime of aggression as one of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community, and provides that the crime falls within the jurisdiction of the [[International Criminal Court]] (ICC). However, Article 5.2 of the Rome Statute states that "The Court shall exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression once a provision is adopted in accordance with articles 121 and 123 defining the crime and setting out the conditions under which the Court shall exercise jurisdiction with respect to this crime. Such a provision shall be consistent with the relevant provisions of the Charter of the United Nations."<ref>[http://legal.un.org/icc/statute/99_corr/2.htm#art.5 Part 2. Jurisdiction, admissibility and applicable law. Article 5.]</ref> The Assembly of States Parties of the ICC adopted such a definition in 2010 at the [[Review Conference of the Rome Statute
==See also==
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