Simulated ICC War Crimes Trial Hearing

On Monday, 21 November 2022, law master’s student volunteers will plead as prosecutors and defence attorneys before distinguished international jurists in a simulated war crimes trial.

The case concerns Chief Claus Michael Pedersen, a fictitious commander featured in A War (password: IHadToDoSomething) a critically acclaimed 2015 Danish film. When his platoon, while deployed in Helmand, Afghanistan, comes under heavy enemy fire in an ambush, Pedersen requests an airstrike. It repels the attack but also kills civilians nearby. A Danish court acquits Pedersen of war crimes. Now the International Criminal Court (ICC) wants to hear his case, too.Pdf, 290.6 kB.

Will the students persuade three judges – a Swedish military lawyer, an Australian law of war expert and a Sri Lankan ICC prosecutor – that Pedersen’s case should proceed or be dismissed?

This occasion marks one of the numerous highlights that the Swedish Defence University´s brand-new Master of Laws (LLM) Programme in International Operational Law offers. It also showcases how international law regulates armed conflict and pursues accountability for battlefield decisions.

The hearing will take place in Cardell & Raab and is open for all to join.

Please contact Nobuo Hayashi, coordinator of the LLM Programme in International Operational Law for more information.