Universal justice?

ASERI, as part of the ASERIncontra review , is pleased to present the volume

Universal justice?
Between States and the International Criminal Court: Assessment of a Promise

by Chantal Meloni 
The Mill

Thursday 27 November 2025, 5.30 p.m.
in ASERI, Via San Vittore 18, MILAN

live streaming is also planned

Introduces:
Damiano Palano, Director of ASERI

Speakers:
Chantal Meloni, Professor of Criminal Law, University of Milan

Gabriele Della Morte, Professor of International Law, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

The book:
By establishing the International Criminal Court in 1998, the international community wanted to envision a global criminal justice system, capable of ending the impunity of the perpetrators of the most serious crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression. More than twenty years after its entry into operation, the universality of this promise clashes with the harshness of reality: on the one hand, states have not equipped themselves with adequate national laws on crimes under international law; on the other hand, the system is reproached for selectivity, double standards, lack of effectiveness and politicization. And yet, never before as today, in the face of the bloody wars in Ukraine and Palestine, the peace-justice binomial returns to show its indivisibility, granting civil society a light of hope and indicating to countries a possibility of politics. This essay attempts to make a balanced assessment and provides the essential legal categories for taking part in one of the debates of our time.

The author:
Chantal Meloni teaches International Criminal Law at the State University of Milan and is Senior Legal Advisor of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin. In 2022, he was part of the Commission for the elaboration of a Code of International Crimes established by the Ministry of Justice. His work includes Command Responsibility in International Criminal Law (T.M.C. Asser Press, 2010), Is there a Court for Gaza? A Test Bench for International Justice (eds., with G. Tognoni, T.M.C. Asser/Springer, 2012) and Domesticating International Criminal Law (eds., with F. Jeßberger and M. Crippa, Routledge, 2023)

Participation is free upon registration. 

live streaming is also planned

Info: info.aseri@unicatt.it