Professor Claus Kress

Professor Claus Kress is the Director of the Institute for Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at the University of Cologne. He studied law at the University of Cologne, received his Masters of Law at the University of Cambridge in 1993 and his Doctorate in Law in 1994. He was appointed Professor of Law at the University of Cologne in 2004, where he holds the Chair for German, European and International Criminal Law as well as International Security Law and the Law of Armed Conflicts. Since 2010, he has been a Life Member of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge. Professor Kress has been a member of Germany’s delegation in the negotiations on the ICC since 1998. Between 1999 and 2001, he assisted in the drafting of the German Code of Crimes under International Law. In 2001, he acted as War Crimes Expert for the Prosecutor General for East Timor. In 2003 and 2004, he was Head of the Drafting Board for the ICC’s Regulations of the Court, and in 2005 and 2006 he was a consultant to the Presidency of the ICC for work on the Regulations of the Registry. During the negotiations on the crime of aggression, he acted as a sub-coordinator within the Special Working Group on the Crime of Aggression. In Kampala, he contributed to Germany’s work as a focal point for the negotiations on certain understandings pertaining to the definition of the crime.