Universal jurisdiction in Argentina: What is the way forward?…

Extraterritorial investigations of atrocity crimes under universal jurisdiction in Argentina have grown at an unprecedented rate. In less than two years, arrest warrants were issued against Franco-era officials, Nicolás Maduro, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife, and 25 public officials in Myanmar, including the Commander-in-Chief. Further proceedings are ongoing involving China, Palestine, Cuba, Ukraine, Yemen, Colombia and Iran, among others. This has positioned Argentina among the top five countries most actively contributing to the international criminal justice enterprise through its domestic courts — and as the undisputed leader from the Global South.

Yet as proceedings multiply and cases grow diplomatically complex, judicial approaches to the scope of universal jurisdiction are increasingly diverging. This is compounded by the absence of legislation regulating extraterritorial investigations. 

The Argentina Society invites you to discuss the way forward of universal jurisdiction in Argentina. Professor Gerry Simpson —LSE’s Chair of Public International Law— and Fabricio Guariglia — Director of the International Development Law Organization and former Director of Prosecutions at the International Criminal Court— will bring together academic and practitioner perspectives. Both are leading figures in the field of international criminal law.

Maia Czarny, member of LSE Argentina Society and LLM student, will then present the edited volume she co-directed with Hernán Kleiman: Universal Jurisdiction: Origins, Foundations and Challenges. Argentina's Experience in International Criminal Investigations, with a prologue by Guariglia. Published in 2025, the book brings together Argentine scholars and practitioners working on the subject from different angles — covering the conceptualisation of universal jurisdiction, its origins and foundations, its relationship with the International Criminal Court, the formal and practical challenges of its exercise, the role of victims, and landmark cases.