War or Crime? Military Action in Peace Keeping and Legal Responsibility

Welcome & Opening Remarks

Prof. Guild launched the seminar by welcoming the speakers and participants. She highlighted that the event was jointly organized by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and the Centre for Migration Law (Radboud University of Nijmegen). The workshop took place in the context of CEPS policy research in EU justice and home affairs and the CHALLENGE Research project.

Prof. Guild explained that CHALLENGE (The Changing Landscape of European Liberty and Security) is a research project funded by the Sixth Framework Research Program of the Directorate-General for Research of the European Commission. It runs over a period of five years starting from 1st of June 2004. CHALLENGE seeks to facilitate a more responsive and responsible assessment of rules and practices of security. It examines the implications of these practices for civil liberties, human practices and social cohesion in an enlarged Europe. The project consists of a multidisciplinary network of 23 universities and research institutes selected from across the EU. The management structure is composed by the scientific coordination led by Didier Bigo, (Fondation National des Sciences Politiques, FNSP), and the administrative coordination composed by Elspeth Guild and Sergio Carrera (Centre for European Policy Studies, CEPS).

Prof. Guild stressed that the main purpose of the seminar consists in examining the relationship between war and crime. The seminar was designed to examine some of the issues and problems which the intersection of military action and criminal law present. She raised the question as to what is the relationship in law of actions taken by the military abroad with criminal law in the EU Member States. The institutions which are primarily responsible for security are the police within the state and the army as regards the external world. Indeed, while the worlds in which they engage are separated by the border of sovereignty, their objective of providing security is defined foremost by their duty to protect the people and the state to which they belong and by which they are paid. Thus the police owe a duty of protection to the people they police and the military owe a duty of protection to their citizens and state.

‘Europe’, however, is changing our understanding of the border of sovereignty and the obligations of our institutions towards their people. Police cooperation has long been within the scope of EU policy, and is the focus of the 2005 Hague Programme on the development of an area of freedom, security and justice. The military is no longer outside the scope of EU law and policy. At the same time, the borders of sovereignty among the Member States are increasingly common - intra Member State borders are no longer the place of control and protection against threat.

Prof. Guild finalized by highlighting the seminar’s programme and the two sections in which it was divided: the first one focusing on cases of national trials related to peace keeping and violence in Iraq, and the second putting the centre of attention on institutional issues resulting from military action in peace keeping.

See the programm of the seminar

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War or Crime ? Military Action in Peace Keeping and Legal Responsibility