Raul Pangalangan CICC Judicial Elections 2015 Candidate Questionnaire

Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC)
Questionnaire for ICC Judicial Candidates

June 2015 Elections
Please reply to some or all of the following questions as comprehensively or concisely as you wish.
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Name: Raul C. Pangalangan

Nationality: Philippines
Nominating State: Philippines
Legal Background (mark as appropriate): List A
List B
Background:
1. Why do you wish to be elected a judge of the ICC?
To serve as ICC judge will be the culmination of my studies, teaching and advocacy in
international human rights and international humanitarian law. I began my human rights work at
the University of the Philippines, seat of the student protest movement against the Marcos
dictatorship, protesting the governments use of censorship, illegal arrests, torture and rape. I
pursued this advocacy in my law studies in the Philippines and in my graduate studies at Harvard
where I specialized in international human rights law. I have since taught and lectured in this field,
and also chaired a group of public interest lawyers. In 2006, I was the lawyer of persons who had
been illegally arrested, and we successfully challenged the state of national emergency that was
used to justify their arrest.
In 1998, I was a Philippine Delegate to the Rome Conference to establish the ICC, and for the next
decade co-chaired the successful campaign for Philippine ratification of the Rome Statute. It will
thus be an honor to serve in the court that in my own small way I helped create.
2. What do you believe are some of the major challenges currently facing the Court? What do you believe
will be some of the major challenges in the coming years?
The ICC is the worlds first standing (not ad hoc) international criminal court, and embodies the
shift away from relying solely on state responsibility and toward imposing individual criminal
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by fax to 1 212 599 1332 or by mail to:
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responsibility as well. It recognizes that individuals must be held accountable for their choices and
their actions
First, this entails fundamental shifts in law as well as attitudes, while affirming the end-goal which
is to stop impunity. Law, because we need to focus on the elements of the crime; identify the
witnesses and marshal the evidence needed to establish those elements; and look at preliminary
measures needed to secure the evidence and protect the victims. Attitudes, because this requires
looking at both the practical and strategic needs of litigating a case and establishing guilt, without
losing sight of the human concern for the victims, their welfare and rehabilitation, and the
historical imperative to establish and record the truth for posterity.
Second, from its inception, the ICC has had to face questions of legitimacy, including its
independence from the political bodies of the United Nations. There are many issues that push the
Court into the political thicket: the geographical focus of its case-load; referrals from the U.N.
Security Council; and the codification of the crime of aggressive war. For a court to be legitimate,
it is not enough to just; it must also be seen to be just.
Third, with the proliferation of international tribunals, there is an increasing need to maintain the
normative and doctrinal consistency of international law. The various tribunals might tend to
decide in isolation from the larger body of rules of international law, and this may tend to weaken
the normative consensus around human rights that has been painstakingly built up in the past half
century.
Nomination Process:
3. What are the qualifications required in the State of which you are a national for appointment to the highest
judicial offices? Please explain how you meet these qualifications.
The Philippine Constitution requires that [a] Member of the Judiciary must be a person of proven
competence, integrity, probity, and independence. Moreover, all judges must be natural-born
citizens of the Philippines, at least 40 years of age, and must have engaged in the practice of law
in the Philippines for at least 15 years. For domestic judicial appointments, there is a Judicial and
Bar Council that vets the nominees and presents a short list of nominees to the President of the
Philippines, the appointing power. The Council consisting of ex officio members from the different
branches of government and appointive members from different constituencies in the legal
profession.
I have been short listed by the Judicial and Bar Council several times as Justice of the Supreme
Court of the Philippines, most recently in August 2010. This attests to the fact that I meet the
qualifications above. Indeed over the past decade, I have submitted to the Council my complete
curriculum vitae, and also my educational, professional, health and financial documents. In order
to short-list a nominee, the Council inspects those documents and subjects all short-listed
candidates to a background check by no less than the National Bureau of Investigation. I have
thus fully satisfied those checks several times over in the past decade. My educational and
professional record will be discussed below.
4.
Have you provided the statement required by article 36(4)(a) of the Rome Statute and by the nomination
and election procedure adopted by the Assembly of States Parties? If not, please provide an explanation
for this omission.


YES, I have filed the statement required by article 36(4)(a) of the Rome Statute and by the
nomination and election procedure adopted by the Assembly of States Parties.
Legal System:
5. Which legal system does your country belong to? Please describe any knowledge or experience you have
working in other legal systems.
The Philippines has both common law and civil law elements. It was a Spanish colony for three
centuries, and its Civil Code and Revised Penal Code derive from the Spanish codes. It was an
American colony for a half-century, and its Constitution, Administrative Code, its various
commercial laws, and all its procedural and remedial codes are derived from U.S. sources. The
hybrid is best captured by our court system. We do not have trial by jury and rely solely on judges,
but our rules of evidence are U.S.-derived and assume a jury system.
The teaching of law is based on the U.S. model, with a pre-requisite four-year college course, a law
course (which is four years in the Philippines), and a bar examination.
I studied law in both the Philippines (University of the Philippines) and the United States (Harvard),
and I have thus been exposed to legal analysis done in both civil law and common law
jurisdictions.
Language Abilities:
6. The Rome Statute requires every candidate to have excellent knowledge of and be fluent in English or
French.
a) What is your native language?
Filipino.
b) What is your knowledge and fluency in English? If it is not your native language, please give an
example of your experience working in English.
English was the language of instruction from grade school to university, and I have spoken
and written English for most of my life. I received my doctorate in international law from the
Harvard Law School in the United States, and I have actually taught there as Visiting Professor
in 1998 and 2007. I also delivered in English my lecture at 2008 annual session of The Hague
Academy of International Law. I earlier served as the Academys Director of Studies for the
English section.
c) What is your knowledge and fluency in French? If it is not your native language, please give an
example of your experience working in French?
None.
List A or B Criteria:
7. Your response to this question will depend on whether you were nominated as a List A candidate or a List
B candidate. Since you may have the competence and experience to qualify for both lists, please feel free
to answer both parts of this question to give the reader a more complete view of your background and
experience.
a) For List A candidates: NOT APPLICABLE


Briefly describe your qualifications as a List A candidate
How would you describe your competence in criminal law and procedure?
How would you describe your experience as judge, prosecutor, counsel, or in another similar
capacity, in criminal proceedings?
b) For List B candidates:

- Briefly describe your qualifications as a list B candidate
I am a full Professor of Law at the University of the Philippines where I have taught since 1984,
serving as Law Dean from 1999 to 2005, and where I teach International Law (including
international human rights and international humanitarian law), and Constitutional Law.
I also teach at the Philippine Judicial Academy, the national training institute for Filipino
judges, and am the former Vice-Chair, Department of International Law and Human Rights.
I was a Philippine Delegate to the 1998 Rome Conference to establish the ICC, and for ten
years was co-chair of the Philippine Coalition for the ICC. I have lectured at The Hague
Academy of International Law and have taught as Visiting Professor at the Harvard Law
School.
I have been a Member of the Philippine Bar since 1984, and co-chair a national group that files
test cases in public interest issues, including human rights and public accountability, and
have represented parties before various courts in the Philippines, including the Philippine
Supreme Court.
I was educated at the Harvard Law School, where I received my Doctor of Juridical Science in
1990 (winning the Charles Sumner Prize for best dissertation relating to international peace)
and my Master of Laws in 1986 (winning the John Laylin Prize for best thesis in international
law).
I am the only Filipino to be awarded the Diplme of The Hague Academy of International Law
(1987). I received my LL.B. and A.B. cum laude (Political Science) from the University of the
Philippines.
-
How would you describe your competence in relevant areas of international law, such as
international humanitarian law and international human rights law?
I have lectured at The Hague Academy of International Law, and earlier served as its Director
of Studies (English Section) and have lectured in two of its External Programmes in Asia,
during which I lectured on IHL cases in Asia.
I have twice been a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Law School. I have also taught
international law and comparative constitutional law as visiting faculty or lecturer at the
University of Melbourne, Hong Kong University, and University of Puerto Rico. I have lectured
at the Irish Centre for Human Rights; Thessaloniki Institute of International Public Law and


International Relations; and the Duke Universitys Asian- American Institute in Transnational
Law. I have delivered the Hochelaga Lectures at the Hong Kong University.
I am a contributing author to the Commentary on the Rome Statue of the International Criminal
Court edited by Professor Otto Triffterer. I gave the Keynote at the Salzburg Seminar on
International Criminal Law, on the topic International Humanitarian Law Cases in Asia: From
Tokyo to East Timor and Cambodia.
I have often lectured for the International Committee of the Red Cross in various training
forums in Asia. I am currently a peer reviewer for the Updated Commentaries on the 1949
Geneva Conventions, and served as Academic and Governmental Expert for the ICRC study
on Customary International Humanitarian Law.
I have twice been a lecturer at the UNITAR international law training seminars for Myanmar
government officials, and with an NGO training for Burmese refugees in Thailand. I have
lectured for the Norwegian Center for Human Rights training for Indonesian judges and
lawyers.
I have been recognized for my expertise in international criminal law. I was Plenary Speaker on
Asian Perspectives on the International Criminal Court at the Annual Meeting of the Asian
Society of International Law, held in Tokyo University in 2009. Earlier I was also Plenary
Speaker on International Criminal Justice: Perspectives from Asia, before the Japan Society of
International Law during its Annual Meeting at Nagoya University in 2003.
I have also received a Bellagio grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to study a theme related
to the ICC which I entitled Global Justice, Native Peace.
-
How would you describe your professional legal experience that is of relevance to the judicial
work of the Court?
I served as Executive Secretary of the Administrative Tribunal of the Asian Development Bank
from 1992 to 2006; I worked part-time. The ADB is the regional multilateral lending institution
for Asia. I worked with respected international law experts from inter alia the United Kingdom,
France, Finland and Japan. I was the first court registrar, so I drafted the Rules of Procedure
and organized the case-flow, including coordinating with judges based in different countries
and time-zones (and for the first few years, before the Internet and email were available).
I was lead counsel in the case challenging illegal arrests made under the state of national
emergency by Philippine President Gloria Arroyo (David v. Arroyo). I chair the Bantay
Katarungan (Sentinels of Justice), a public interest group that files test cases in human rights
and public accountability before the courts.
The Philippine Supreme Court has tapped my expertise and designated me amicus curiae on
constitutional law (e.g., the validity of the articles of impeachment against the Supreme Court
Chief Justice) and international law (e.g., the validity of the Japan-Philippines Economic
Partnership Agreement) issues. I am also lead counsel in the case for the domestic
enforcement of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. (FCTC).


I had earlier served as General Counsel of the University of the Philippines (1990-92), handling
litigation, advising and drafting work for the countrys national university, its President and
Board of Regents, and leading a team of around twelve lawyers.
Other Expertise and Experience:
8. Please describe the aspects of your career, experience or expertise outside your professional competence
that you consider especially relevant to the work of an ICC judge.
I have been awarded the Asian Public Intellectual Fellowship by the Nippon Foundation of
Japan. I have built up my reputation as a public intellectual through my weekly opinion
column (Passion for Reason, 2004-12) in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the nations largest
newspaper, to educate the public on legal issues. I stopped my column when I became the
newspapers Publisher in 2012. In my column and in public interviews on television, I have
tried to make legal issues understandable to the lay public, so that they can take part
meaningfully in these debates. I realized that the public hungers for legal insights but are
likewise bound up in misconceptions and obsolete approaches.
9. Please provide examples of your legal expertise in other relevant areas such as the crimes over which the
Court has jurisdiction; the management of complex criminal and mass crimes cases; or the disclosure of
evidence.
I have only a few items of direct involvement in this area. The first is as an organizer and
speaker of several training sessions for prosecutors on extrajudicial killings (EJK). We invited
speakers from the ICTY and other international groups to train prosecutors in the areas most
affected by desaparecidos during the period 2006-2008 under former President Gloria Arroyo.
The forums also resulted in some reforms in the investigative and prosecutorial systems of
the country.
The second is with my work with the European Union-Philippines Justice Sector program (EPJUST), for which I studied the use of cell phone evidence to track down EJK victims, using the
case of a star witness in a corruption scandal involving President Arroyo who was kidnapped
but who lived to tell his story.
The third was when the Congress of the Philippines asked me to testify as an expert witness
on the admissibility of wiretapped conversations between President Arroyo and her election
commissioner, conspiring to cheat the elections, kidnap the family of an election registrar,
and rig the count. I included that testimony in my paper for EP-JUST above.
The fourth was when I lectured before trial court judges on the prosecution of IHL violations,
and they raised with me problems on the effect of ceasefire agreements on the enforcement of
our domestic criminal laws against the rebels.
Experience (and perspective) related to gender crimes and crimes of sexual violence:
10. Historically, many of the grave abuses suffered by women in situations of armed conflict have been
marginalized or overlooked. Please describe any experience you may have in dealing with crimes of
sexual and/or gender based violence and where you have applied a gender perspective, i.e. inquired into
the ways in which men and women were differently impacted.
My only involvement in this area was as legal counsel in a case (Lourdes Osil et al. v. City of
Manila) filed by women from an urban poor community to strike down the City of Manilas ban
on contraceptive distribution in government clinics. It was part of my advocacy for womens
reproductive rights, which was opposed by the dominant religious group in the country. In


addition to constitutional grounds of the right to privacy, the women petitioners explained
that, the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) Law notwithstanding, their
husbands were prone to use violence if they refused sexual relations to avoid unwanted
pregnancies. Thus denial of access to modern contraceptives aggravated that danger.
Victims related work:
11. Victims have a recognized right to participate in ICC proceedings and to apply for reparations under Article
75 of the Rome Statute. Please describe any experience that you have, which would be relevant to these
provisions, particularly any experience you may have that would make you particularly sensitive to/have
understanding of the participation of victims in the courtroom.
During the 1998 Rome Conference, the Holy See and some Catholic countries resisted the
codification of the crime of forced pregnancy, on the ground that it will legalize abortion using
international law. The Holy See had argued that such acts were already punishable under the
catch-all clause on sexual offenses, and that there was no need to codify a new offense. From a
purely prosecutorial standpoint, these acts would have been punishable even without codifying
the crime.
However, from the victims standpoint, that would have been incomplete justice. For me, the
turning point was a forum where the women victims spoke of their ordeal, and why it was
important to call the offense committed against them by its real name, not by some generic label.
Proper codification meant that the global community condemned the evil that was committed
against them, and that was part of the justice that they were seeking. Justice, in that context, was
not just punitive but should likewise be restorative.
12. How would you address the need for a balance between victims participation with the rights of the
accused to due process and a fair and impartial trial? Do you have any relevant experience in dealing with
this issue?
These two needs affect the fairness and legitimacy of any trial. The rights of the accused are more
developed in law, while victims rights as an element of their sense of ownership over the justice
they seek is only of recent vintage. The precise balance can be made only in the context of an
actual case or controversy, but suffice it to say that a violation of the rights of the accused will
trigger off due process issues while calibrating the victims right to participate, while it should be
protected, will not necessarily give rise to a due process issue.
Human rights and Humanitarian Law experience
13. Do you have any experience in working with or within international human rights bodies or courts or have
you served on the staff or board of directors of human rights or international humanitarian law
organizations? Please briefly describe.
I chair the Bantay Katarungan (Sentinels of Justice), a public interest group that files test cases in
human rights and public accountability before the courts. As stated earlier, I represented persons
subject of illegal arrests under a state of emergency. The group also was counsel for two persons
who survived an attempt at an extrajudicial killing and disappearance. As a graduate student at
Harvard many years ago, I was a Clyde Ferguson fellow and served as an intern at the Lawyers
Committee for Human Rights (now renamed Human Rights First).


14. Have you ever referred to or applied any specific provisions of international human rights or international
humanitarian law treaties within any judicial decision that you may have issued within the context of your
judicial activity or legal experience?
No.
Implementation of the Rome Statute and ICL
15. During the course of your judicial activity, if any, have you ever applied the provisions of the Rome Statute
directly or through the equivalent national legislation that incorporates Rome Statute offences and
procedure? Or have you ever referred to or applied the jurisprudence of the ICC, ad hoc; or special
tribunals? If so please describe the context in which you did.
No.
Other matters:
16. Have you ever resigned from a position as a member of the bar of any country or been disciplined or
censured by any bar association of which you may have been a member? If yes, please describe the
circumstances.
No, I have not.
17. It is expected that a judge shall not, by words or conduct, manifest or appear to condone bias or prejudice,
including, but not limited to, bias or prejudice based upon age, race, creed, color, gender, sexual
orientation, religion, national origin, disability, marital status, socioeconomic status, alienage or citizenship
status.
a) Do you disagree or have difficulty with this expectation?
No. I support this expectation, and will continue to support it.
b) Have you ever been found by a governmental, legal or professional body to have discriminated
against or harassed an individual on these grounds. If yes, please describe the circumstances.
No. I have never been accused nor have I been found guilty of any such acts.
18. Article 40 of the Rome Statute requires judges to be independent in the performance of their functions.
Members of the CICC and governments are concerned about the difficulties a judge may experience in
independently interpreting articles of the Rome Statute on which his or her government has expressed an
opinion.
a) Do you expect to have any difficulties in your taking a position independent of, and possibly
contrary to, your government?
No, I will not have any difficulty taking a position independent of, or contrary to, my own
government. Indeed, I have sued the previous President Gloria Arroyo for ordering illegal
arrests, and I joined the call to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Killings to
investigate such killings and disappearances under President Arroyo.
b) Article 41 requires a judges recusal in any case in which his or her impartiality might be doubted
on any ground. Do you feel you could participate in a judicial decision involving a matter in which
your government has an interest, such as whether an investigation by your government on a matter
of which the ICC was seized was genuine?
Yes, I feel that I can adjudicate such matters with the required fairness and independence,
especially given my track record of holding my government to account. However, if recusal
is needed in order to avoid any doubt or remove any cloud on the proceedings, I will readily
recuse.


19. The Rome Statute requires that judges elected to the Court be available from the commencement of their
terms, to serve a non-renewable nine-year term, and possibly to remain in office to complete any trials or
appeals. A judge is expected to handle legal matters for at least seven hours per day, five days per week.
a) Do you expect to be able to serve at the commencement and for the duration of your term, if
elected?
Yes, I will be able to serve at the commencement of and for the duration of my 9-year term.
b) Do you expect to be able to perform the judicial tasks described above on your own or with
reasonable accommodation? If no, please describe the circumstances.
Yes, I will be able to perform the judicial tasks that will be required by my office.
20. If there are any other points/issues you wish to bring to the attention of the Coalition in this questionnaire,
please feel free to address them here.
My other advocacies, either as counsel or public advocate, are the rights of persons with
disabilities; regulation of organ transplants; tobacco control; reproductive rights; legal education
and bar examination reform.
Thank you.


Raul Pangalangan CICC Judicial Elections 2015 Candidate Questionnaire

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Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC)

Questionnaire for ICC Judicial Candidates

Name: Raul C. Pangalangan

You may send your completed questionnaire by email to judicial-elections@coalitionfortheicc.org;

Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC)

You may send your completed questionnaire by email to judicial-elections@coalitionfortheicc.org;

Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC)

You may send your completed questionnaire by email to judicial-elections@coalitionfortheicc.org;

Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC)

Briefly describe your qualifications as a List A candidate

b) For List B candidates:

You may send your completed questionnaire by email to judicial-elections@coalitionfortheicc.org;

Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC)

You may send your completed questionnaire by email to judicial-elections@coalitionfortheicc.org;

Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC)

You may send your completed questionnaire by email to judicial-elections@coalitionfortheicc.org;

Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC)

You may send your completed questionnaire by email to judicial-elections@coalitionfortheicc.org;

Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC)

You may send your completed questionnaire by email to judicial-elections@coalitionfortheicc.org;

Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC)

You may send your completed questionnaire by email to judicial-elections@coalitionfortheicc.org;

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