Antonio Cassese will today receive the Dutch Erasmus prize for his services in the field of international law. He told RNW his greatest worry is the tendency for states to become increasingly nationalistic, putting sovereign needs above universal values. 

The prestigious Erasmus Prize is awarded annually to a person or persons who have made a significant contribution to culture, society or social science in Europe. This year it’s been awarded to the Italian Professor Antonio Cassese together with the American prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz. The prize will be presented by Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander.

Key figures
The two winners are seen as key figures in the development of international justice. Professor Cassese calls the prize a great honour – but maintains that his co-prize winner is a much more important figure.  The 89-year-old Benjamin Ferencz was chief prosecutor at the Nuremburg Trials after the Second World War, when key figures in the Nazi regime were prosecuted for their role in the Holocaust. According to Cassese, that was the beginning of a system of international justice. Justice based not on revenge, but on the due process of law.
 
“That is what the Americans rightly suggested in 1945 when the British were reluctant to set up a tribunal in Nuremberg. Churchill had suggested it would be sufficient to execute some 10,000 senior German officers. The Americans rightly said the proper response is to put them on trial to see who is guilty, who is innocent and then to sentence the guilty people. I think this is a highly civilised response.” he said.

Lebanon Tribunal
Mr Cassese was Professor of International Law at the University of Florence and in 1993 was appointed the first President of the UN Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. On leaving the tribunal in 1997 he led a commission of enquiry into human rights abuses in Darfur before being appointed head of the UN’s Lebanon Tribunal, set up to try those responsible for the assassination of Prime Minster Rafic Hariri.

Made-to-measure
Cassese believes there will always be a need for special tribunals despite the establishment of the International Criminal Court. There will always be countries, he says, that want a special ‘made to measure’ tribunal for particular circumstances. 

“Take (the Lebanon) Tribunal. This tribunal is dealing with terrorism, which is an area that is not under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, and Lebanon was very keen to be part of the tribunal, so therefore these are two particular needs that were satisfied by setting up this tribunal. And in future there may be other situations where similar hybrid tribunals may be needed.”

Nationalism
The Yugoslavia Tribunal was, believes Cassese, a huge step forward in the development of international justice. He’s also positive about the increasing respect for international law in many parts of the world. Nevertheless, he also sees a worrying increase in nationalism; he won’t name names, but says some states are introducing laws that put their own national interests above all else.

“What I fear is that states concentrate more and more on nationalistic leanings of sovereignty. I think sovereignty is the real stumbling block to progress in the international community. States should gradually open up to international relations and say, for instance, implement international legal standards. I fear that unilateralism and too much emphasis on the sovereign interests of states and the protection of national interest may in a way undermine the spread of universal values in the international community.”

Prize money for students
Cassese is passionate about the need for further development and knowledge in the field of international justice. Backing up his words with deeds, he intends to give his 75,000 euros prize money to a fund he has established to support young students wanting to specialise in international law.