Head of State Immunity under the Malabo Protocol (Triumph of Impunity over Accountability?)

In Head of State Immunity under the Malabo Protocol: Triumph of Impunity over Accountability?, Kobina Egyir Daniel engages the subject of Head of State Immunity in international law against the backdrop of the African Union (AU)’s decision to create a Court with international criminal jurisdiction before which “Heads of State” or persons “entitled to act in such capacity” will have immunity during incumbency. The AU asserts - in justification - not only that it is standing up for itself against “neo-colonialist imperialist forces,” which have perverted international criminal justice and target African States through the International Criminal Court (ICC), but also that it is preserving the very soul of international criminal justice as well as customary international law on immunities.

Beyond the analysis to determine whether the immunity that the AU’s Malabo Protocol of 2014 confers represents a retrogression in international law norms that seek accountability for jus cogens crimes, Daniel provides valuable insights into the status-inspired dialectics and self-serving hero-villain polemics that fuel contestations of right between the AU and the ICC, and the worldviews that respectively seek to overturn/preserve the asymmetry of the international legal order. Through a review of legal history, case law from national and international tribunals, state practice and academic expositions, the book examines the evolution and practice of Head of State immunity as well as recent trends in the practice of the doctrine in light of the countervailing push to establish exceptions to immunity in order to ensure accountability under international human rights and international criminal law.