Expert Roundtable:

Prosecuting Putin: Next Steps

Event Description

Join PILPG on March 24 from 12 pm to 1 pm ET for a conversation with Former Chief Prosecutors and international law experts regarding the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin based on his individual responsibility for the forcible deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.

During the roundtable event, former Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone David Crane, former International Co-Prosecutor for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia Robert Petit, Co-Dean of the Case Western Reserve University School of Law Michael Scharf, and Professor Milena Sterio will discuss the implications of this arrest warrant, how an ICC trial with Putin might proceed, and the consequences of a possible indictment of Putin for peace negotiations in Ukraine.

The event will be moderated by PILPG Founder Dr. Paul R. Williams and will be available in English and Ukrainian.

This is part of the PILPG Thought Leadership Initiative. The Initiative focuses on prominent international law and international affairs topics and organizes monthly expert roundtables to share expertise and reflections from our work on peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and war crimes prosecution.

Event Recording (UKR)

Event Recording (ENG)

Speakers

**Nick Yurlov**

Nick Yurlov is a Ukrainian lawyer, currently serving as Senior Legal Advisor at Truth Hounds and a board member of the Ukrainian Bar Association. His duties include legal support for investigations of war crimes and genocide committed during the Russian-Ukrainian war, advising Ukrainian judges, prosecutors and investigators on international humanitarian and criminal law, and coopering with international and Ukrainian partners on war crimes and genocide investigations.He focuses on public international law and international dispute resolution. Nick has represented clients in international investment and commercial arbitrations, cross-border litigation and investor–state negotiations. He advised a Member of Parliament on public international law issues. For several years, Nick acted as a National Administrator of Jessup Ukraine. He judged Jessup, Frankfurt, Vis, Telders, Stetson, Price and other moot court competitions.

**Professor David Crane**

David Crane is a Professor at the Syracuse University College of Law and was the founding Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone from 2002 to 2005. With the rank of Undersecretary General, Dr. Crane’s mandate was to prosecute those who bear the greatest responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international human rights committed during the civil war in Sierra Leone during the 1990’s. Among those he indicted was the President of Liberia, Charles Taylor, the first sitting African head of state to be held accountable. Prior to this position, he served over 30 years in the Senior Executive Service of the United States government. Dr. Crane teaches international criminal law, international law, international humanitarian law, and national security law. He speaks around the world and publishes extensively on international humanitarian law and founded the Global Accountability Network in 2017. Dr. Crane holds a *J.D.* from Syracuse University, a *M.A.* in African Studies and a *B.G.S.* in History from Ohio University.

**Former prosecutor** **Robert Petit**

Robert Petit is a Senior Peace Fellow at PILPG. He is a Canadian lawyer who during 2006 and 2009 was the International Co-Prosecutor for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Petit was a Crown prosecutor in Montreal for eight years. From 1996 to 1999, he was a Legal Officer in the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Between 1999 and 2004, he was a Regional Legal Advisor for the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, a Prosecutor for the Serious Crimes Unit of the United Nations Mission of Support to East Timor, and a Senior Trial Attorney for the Special Court for Sierra Leone. At the Special Court for Sierra Leone, he led the task force that prosecuted six indictees in two separate cases for crimes against humanity, including terrorism and war crimes. Currently, Petit serves as a Counsel in the Crimes Against Humanity and the War Crimes Section of Justice Canada. Petit was called to the Quebec Bar in 1987 and has spoken and written extensively on international humanitarian and human rights laws.

Professor Michael Scharf

Michael Scharf is the Co-Founder of PILPG. He is also the Co-Dean of the Case Western Reserve University School of Law and the Joseph C. Hostetler—BakerHostetler Professor of Law. Scharf has led USAID-funded transitional justice projects in Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Libya, and Turkey (for Syria). Scharf served as Special Assistant to the Prosecutor of the Cambodia Genocide Tribunal and served in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State. Scharf is the author of over 100 scholarly articles and 20 books, four of which have won national book of the year honors. Scharf was ranked as among the most cited authors in the field since 2010 by the 2016 and 2019 Sisk/Leiter studies. Scharf was recently elected President-elect of the American Branch of the International Law Association.

**Professor Milena Sterio**

Milena Sterio is the Managing Director of PILPG and the Charles R. Emrick Jr. - Calfee Halter & Griswold Professor of Law at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. She is a leading expert on international law, international criminal law and human rights. Sterio leads PILPG’s Thought Leadership Initiative.
Sterio is one of six permanent editors of the prestigious IntLawGrrls blog, and a frequent contributor to the blog focused on international law, policy and practice. In the spring of 2013, Sterio was selected as a Fulbright Scholar, spending the semester in Baku, Azerbaijan, at Baku State University. While in Baku, she had the opportunity to teach and conduct research on secession issues under international law related to the province of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh. Serving as a maritime piracy law expert, she has participated in meetings of the United Nations Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia as well as in the work of the United Nations Global Counterterrorism Forum. Sterio has also assisted piracy prosecutions in Mauritius, Kenya and the Seychelles Islands. Sterio is a graduate of Cornell Law School and the University of Paris I, and was an associate in the New York City firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton before joining the ranks of academia full time. She has published seven books and numerous law review articles. Her latest book, “The Syrian Conflict’s Impact on International Law,” (co-authored with Paul Williams and Michael Scharf) was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.

MODERATOR

Dr. Paul R. Williams holds the Rebecca I. Grazier Professorship in Law and International Relations at American University where he teaches in the School of International Service and at the Washington College of Law. Dr. Williams is also the co-founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), a pro bono law firm providing legal assistance to states and governments involved in peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and the prosecution of war criminals. As a world renowned peace negotiation lawyer, Dr. Williams has assisted over two dozen parties in major international peace negotiations and has advised numerous parties on the drafting and implementation of post-conflict constitutions. Several of Dr. Williams' pro bono government clients throughout the world joined together to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr. Williams has served as a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as well as an Attorney-Adviser for European and Canadian affairs at the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Legal Adviser. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Dr. Williams is a sought-after international law and policy expert. He is frequently interviewed by major print and broadcast media and regularly contributes op-eds to major newspapers. Dr. Williams has authored six books on various topics concerning international law, and has published over three dozen scholarly articles on topics of international law and policy. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on a number of occasions relating to specific peace processes, transitional justice, and self-determination. Dr. Williams is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, and has served as a Counsellor on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. In 2019, Paul was awarded the Cox International Law Center's Humanitarian Award for Advancing Global Justice. More information about Dr. Williams can be found at www.drpaulrwilliams.com.