Vasko is a part-time PhD student at the University of Melbourne studying under the auspices of the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law. He graduated from the University of Melbourne Law School in 2004 with a Master of Public and International Law.

Abstract of PhD Thesis
'The Enactment of War Crimes Legislation in Australia Without Offending the Prohibition on Retrospective Legislation'
(expected completion date: June 2011)

Vasko's research will explore the Australian experience in prosecuting alleged war criminals resident in Australia, which has been a largely disappointing exercise partly because of the inadequacy of existing war crimes legislation that has both temporal and geographic limitations. Moreover the recent ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which has facilitated amendments to the Australian Criminal Code to include the so-called international crimes of Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes within Australia’s domestic sphere, will only have prospective effect. Hence, Australia’s domestic legislation currently seems somewhat unconcerned in relation to certain atrocities committed in different parts of the globe and in various armed conflicts that have taken place since the Second World War, therefore potentially excusing war criminals from prosecution in Australia’s criminal justice system.

The thesis will examine the option of Australia enacting new legislation that will enable the prosecution of individuals living in Australia for committing such atrocities. He will address the assumed impediment of retrospectivity in the event of enacting such legislation by demonstrating that the essence of all of these crimes were not only considered abhorrent in Australia at the relevant time but also that these crimes existed as punishable crimes in Australia. Any new legislation in this area, enacted retrospectively, will not be the basis for the conception of new crimes but will merely provide Australian courts with the necessary jurisdiction to prosecute such acts, therefore arguing that they fall within the purview of Australia’s criminal justice system and not offending the prohibition on retrospective legislation.

(January 2006)

Contact details:
law-apcml@unimelb.edu.au