The Conseil D’etat “Kabuga” Judgment: Further Proof Of The Close Intertwining Of International Criminal Law And State Sovereignty
Jacques Bellezit, University of Strasbourg
ABSTRACT
Félicien Kabuga was allegedly the financier behind the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Indicted by the International Tribunal for Rwanda, he was liberated due to his unfitness to be tried.
However, since his release, no solutions have been found between the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals and several States, especially France.
By having implicitly upheld French authorities’ refusal to host a disabled but high-profile Rwandese genocide suspect, the French « Conseil d’Etat » judgment of May 27th 2026 illustrates how international criminal law and domestic authorities may still closely intertwine.
As a prolegomenon, one has to keep in mind that the French “Conseil d’Etat” (Council of State) is the top-level administrative court as well as the provider of legal counsel for the French government.
Shaped under its modern configuration under Napoleon’s Consulate in 1799, it is traditionally seen as a “Grand Corps de l’Etat” (i.e., Great Corps of the State), in which serve the epitome of France’s high civil servants, trained mostly (if not exclusively) within the National Institute of Public Service (formerly known as the National School of Administration) Composed of six advisory sections1 and an Administrative Bench, the latter ensures the jurisdictional duty of the Conseil.
