马航MH17事件引发的国际法思考

Reflections on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 from Perspective of International Law

2014年7月17日,马来西亚航空公司的一架客机在飞越乌克兰东部交战区域时被导弹击中坠毁,机组人员与乘客全部遇难。基于相关事实,认为根据现有国际条约,故意击落他国民航客机属于严重危害民用航空安全的犯罪行为,且违反了1949年《关于战时保护平民之日内瓦公约》的规定,构成了《国际刑事法院规约》中的"战争罪"。限于种种因素,国际刑事法院和国际法院很难对涉事的国家和个人实施管辖,但犯罪发生地国、航空器登记地国、罪犯藏匿地国乃至受害者国籍国等都可依普遍管辖权或其国内法的规定对本案实施管辖并对罪犯定罪量刑。

On July 17,2014,Malaysia Airlines（ MH17） was shot down by a missile in eastern Ukraine where fierce fighting were going on between Ukrainian forces and insurgents,killing all passengers and crew aboard. Based on relevant facts,this article holds that intentional shooting down of the civilian airliner of other countries is a criminal offence that seriously endangers the safety of civil aviation. It violates the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in 1949 and constitutes war crime under the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court. Due to many restrictions,it is difficult for the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice to employ jurisdiction over the states or persons involved in this tragedy. However,the state where the crime occurred,the state where the aircraft registered,the state where the criminals hide or the state to which the victims＇ nationality belongs have jurisdiction based on their domestic laws or according to the universal jurisdiction principle.