472 Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (1914– )intimidating passion of its advocates.” He warned that “[t]he world should
think carefully about the implications of a procedure by which a single
judge anywhere is able, essentially at his personal discretion, to assert juris-
diction over a citizen of another state for alleged crimes committed entirely
in that other state.” Th e result, he lamented, is a risk of “substituting the
tyranny of judges for that of governments.”
Kissinger’s misgivings about universal jurisdiction were shared by his
own government. Fearing that some of its offi cials might be prosecuted, the
American government made it clear that, unless Belgium altered its legisla-
tion, NATO headquarters would be removed from the country. Th e Belgian
government duly made two important changes, in 2003, to its universal ju-
risdiction legislation: fi rst, providing that prosecutions could be instituted
only at the request of the government’s federal prosecutor; and second, re-
moving the right to bring civil actions for damages in conjunction with
criminal prosecutions.
In its ruling in the Arrest Warrant case in 2002, the World Court did im-
pose one important barrier against the exercise of universal jurisdiction:
disallowing its use against incumbent government offi cials such as diplo-
mats, heads of state, and foreign ministers. But that still left former offi cials
vulnerable once they left offi ce. Th is was dramatically illustrated in 2000,
when British courts held that ex- President Augusto Pinochet of Chile could
be extradited to Spain to face accusations of torture committed during his
tenure in offi ce. In Spain, investigations were made in 2008– 9 into the
conduct of the former leader of China, Jiang Zemin, regarding alleged re-
pressive actions in Tibet (although these were discontinued aft er a change in
legislation). In 2009, a British court issued a warrant for the arrest of a
former foreign minister of Israel, for the alleged commission of war crimes
in the course of armed confl ict in Gaza. Th e ex- minister carefully refrained
from entering British territory, so the warrant was then withdrawn. In
light of the principle of universal jurisdiction, travel plans for former state
offi cials were in danger of becoming very complicated.
Humanitarian Intervention
Another form that self- appointed enforcement of international law took was
the more robust one of armed force in the cause of what became commonly