Commentary

One of the key steps in the procedure before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) is the filing of a closing order in relation to one or several suspects. In case 002, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Khieu Samphan all filed motions of appeal against several aspects of the closing order delivered on 16 September 2010, by which the Co-Investigating Judges ordered their indictment. This commentary attempts to shed some light on three decisions issued by the Pre-Trial Chamber on these appeals. Two procedural matters discussed in the decisions are first outlined, namely the right to appeal against a closing order and the latter’s impact on the regime of provisional detention. The analysis then turns to the core substantive contribution of the decisions, that is, the adjudication of the various jurisdictional challenges on the basis of the nullum crimen principle. In the end, it is submitted that, on the whole, the judges showed strict adherence to the principle of legality, thereby strengthening the ECCC’s legitimacy in the realm of global criminal justice.