International Research and Documentation Centre for War Crimes Trials, University of Marburg, Germany
Contact: Lars Büngener
The International Research and Documentation Centre for War Crimes Trials (ICWC) concluded a Co-Operation Agreement with the ICC in 2007, following an intention agreement from 2005. Under the Co-Operation Agreement, the ICWC is obliged to make available part of its own database to the Legal Tools of International(ized) Criminal Judgements as well as National Cases Involving Core International Crimes.
The ICWC was founded at the University of Marburg as an interdisciplinary follow-up to a pilot project of the Max-Planck-Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt/Main, in 2003. In a working environment of lawyers, historians, political scientists and sociologists, the ICWC collects data of cases against war criminals held in the aftermath of World War II. This includes not only the famous Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials, but to a large extend thousands of other trials which were held on the national level, many by the Main Allies, but also by other countries, such as Norway, Poland, Australia, China, and, not least, Germany. Up to now, more than 5.000 cases comprising more than 700.000 pages have been collected, with many more yet to come.
In its early jurisprudence, the ICTY relied heavily on judgements stemming from the aftermath of World War II, these cases have thus proved to be an important source for modern international criminal justice. Given the fact that most of them are not even publicly known yet, they form an integral part of the Legal Tools database and will prove to be interesting not just for lawyers, but also for historians and other scholars.
