Joe Biden administration calls for a joint tribunal in which Ukraine and international allies will try Russian leaders for the crime of aggression. But some human rights lawyers fear the plan has a fatal flaw: it could keep President Vladimir Putin safe from prosecution..

The New York Times writes about it. Beth Van Schaak, the State Department's global criminal justice spokesperson, said Monday the administration supports the creation of an "

“We are ready to work with Ukraine and the peace-loving countries of the world to create, staff and resource such a tribunal that will provide comprehensive accountability for international crimes committed in Ukraine,” she said at a conference on war crimes at the Catholic University in Washington..

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While her words were one of the strongest statements in US support for prosecuting Russia for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, they also highlighted the difficulty of holding world leaders accountable for their actions while they remain in power.. By setting clear limits on how far the administration is willing to go, Van Schaak acknowledged her reluctance to set a precedent that could pave the way for similar prosecutions of U.S. officials..

The publication explains that critics of Russia's invasion of Ukraine are debating competing proposals to hold Russian leaders accountable for the war.. In particular, they propose to create either a hybrid court built into the Ukrainian system, but with international elements, or a purely international platform with jurisdiction over the crime of aggression..

While details still need to be worked out and possibly amended by Ukrainian law, lawyers say the hybrid court could include both Ukrainian and international judges and have jurisdiction over the crime of aggression under both Ukrainian and international law.. It could also hold meetings outside the war zone, including in The Hague.

Ukraine, like other countries, allows incumbent heads of state to enjoy immunity from prosecution. When creating the proposed hybrid court, the Ukrainian parliament may make an exception. But if Putin is ever arrested and goes to trial, his lawyers could argue that the exclusion was illegal..

David Schaeffer, who served as U.S. war crimes ambassador from 1997 to 2001, said the State Department's proposal to create a general tribunal based on Ukrainian law is not justified..

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Several former diplomats and academics want the UN General Assembly to create a purely international judicial institution like the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which prosecutes war crimes and has ruled that it is not required to respect the immunity of incumbent heads of state. They argue that such a new court could invoke the ISS precedent, which would prevent Putin from exercising immunity and getting the case dismissed..

“Aggression is a crime committed by the leadership. If leaders have immunity, then what are we even talking about We are experiencing the Nuremberg moment. Do we really want to stop aggression and the use of force? If so, then we need to have a real deterrent response,” said Jennifer Tran, an international relations professor at New York University who advocates for a tribunal independent of the Ukrainian judiciary..

But Harold Khonju Koh, a Yale Law School professor who served as a leading State Department lawyer in the Obama administration, argues that a hybrid tribunal modeled on the court that tried Khmer Rouge leaders in Cambodia could have gone ahead much faster.. Koch noted that even with a purely international model, the issue of overcoming immunity for incumbent heads of state is far from being resolved..

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“The best should not be the enemy of the good. The advantage of a hybrid court is that such a court actually operates.

Ukrainians have a prosecutor's office that works and considers cases. You want to get on a train that's going somewhere and see if it can get you where you want to go or if you wait for a brand new train to be built? ' said Koch.

Vedant Patel, a spokesman for the US State Department, said on Tuesday that the new approach should not be seen as an "

“This is another mechanism through which we support all international efforts to investigate crimes,” he said..