“In search of a way out ... of the impunity gap”: l’aggressione militare russa nei confronti dell’Ucraina quale banco di prova per testare l’effettività del diritto (penale) internazionale

The present paper aims to examine, through a broad-based analysis, the Russian military aggression against Ukraine in the light of international law. The latter, considered as being largely ineffective, plays instead a fundamental role in assessing the conflict situation, analysing its legal implications and identifying possible solutions. This renewed confidence towards international law been confirmed by the various actions endorsed not only by the injured State, but especially by the international community as a whole. Indeed, along with the two inter-State complaints brought by Ukraine against Russia before both the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights, there have also been collective efforts. In this sense, it is worth mentioning the referral by which 41 States have triggered the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which immediately opened an investigation; again, the resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly condemning the current situation while the Security Council being paralyzed by the Russian veto; the Russia’s expulsion from is the Council of Europe. Despite this impressive ‘apparatus’, it cannot be denied that international law encounters significant limitations in relation to the Ukrainian situation, having to cope not also with the inability of prosecuting the crime of aggression, but especially with Russia’s obstructive attitude and, above all, with the eventuality that, if justice really there will be, it will hopelessly take many years.