The Enid H. Adler International Criminal Court Collection
In June 1998, attorney Enid H. Adler, together with representatives of more than 160 countries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), participated in the Rome Treaty Conference, which created the first independent International Criminal Court (ICC) under the Rome Statute. Over the course of the next twenty years, she has interacted with the wide array of government and non-governmental entities that are part of the Rome Statute System – for example, the Court, the Assembly of States Parties, and the Trust Fund for Victims. Ms. Adler actively participated with these international entities and contributed to the continued evolvement of the new Court’s structure, powers and procedures. Since the creation of the Court in 1998 and until the present, Ms. Adler has been committed to active involvement in the growth and development of the Court, to international human rights, to the rule of law, and to the ICC’s mission to end impunity for individuals reaching the Statutory threshold for committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression.
Throughout this period, Ms. Adler collected and preserved a unique documentary record of the process, development, and growth of the ICC from its creation in Rome until today. She has generously donated these materials to the Villanova Law Library, so that we may preserve and make available her personal, extensive, and unique collection of historical materials chronicling the Court's inception and implementation.
Ms. Adler stated, “I am thrilled to make my historic and comprehensive collection available for use by current, past, and future Villanova law students and alums, researchers, and the general public.”
About the Collection
Included in the Adler Collection are United Nations publications of official statements from participating governments, publicity materials and internal studies produced by a variety of non-governmental organizations, transcripts of e-mails and other correspondence produced by participants and observers of the official negotiations, and personal notes and photographs taken by Ms. Adler herself in numerous conferences and meetings wherein the form and powers of the proposed Court were shaped.
In addition to the documentation on the creation of the Court are included materials on the creation of a Bar Association for practitioners before the Court and a code of professional conduct for such practitioners, descriptions of the first cases of persons accused of crimes against humanity brought to trial before the ICC, and even competing architectural proposals for the Court’s new building, now completed, in The Hague, The Netherlands. The Adler Collection is now preserved for future access by international law scholars and researchers in the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law Library.
Access to the Collection
The Enid H. Adler International Criminal Court Collection is stored in the secured archives of the Villanova Law Library. Materials are available for research by appointment in the library facility and under the guidance of library staff. Requests to examine materials in this collection should be based on particular items listed in the published inventory. Please contact Steve Elkins, Associate Director for Collection Management, at elkins@law.villanova.edu for assistance.
at Villanova Law
About Enid H. Adler
Enid H. Adler, a sole practitioner focused on asylum immigration, family reunification, and international human rights, is now semi-retired but still very active in legal and humanitarian issues. She has spent many years and considerable time and energy in pro bono, legal, community, and international work. She is now retired from active practice.
Ms. Adler received a bachelor’s degree in Education from Temple University. At age 50, she attended Villanova Law, where she earned a J.D., and later received a Certificate in Legal Studies Abroad from Dickinson University School of Law. Prior to becoming a lawyer, her careers included teaching, public/community/media relations, corporate image development, fundraising, international journalism and more. She is a well published author, lecturer, mentor and amateur photographer.
Ms. Adler participated in the 1998 Treaty Conference of Nations, held in Rome, that established an independent and permanent International Criminal Court (ICC/Rome Statute) to prosecute perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression. Since then, she has been a committed representative of the non-government organization (NGO) Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC), comprised of over 2500 civil society organizations worldwide, plus the Washington Working Group for the ICC (WICC). She was selected to be on the Coalition's Team on the Crime of Aggression negotiations. The Team's task was to meet with delegates from over 120 countries and prepare an amendment denoting criteria the Court would need to implement its jurisdiction over the crime of aggression. Ms. Adler describes the team's work as "eight years of challenging informal and formal deliberations." The Amendment was completed and passed in June 2010 at the ICC's First Review Conference, held in Kampala, Uganda. The Court's jurisdiction over this crime was activated in July 2018.
Ms. Adler was appointed to the American Bar Association's (ABA) 2010 ICC Review Conference Task Force and was part of this ABA delegation in Kampala. She also serves on the CICC teams for Women for Gender Justice, Legal Initiative, Victims’ Rights, and has additional responsibilities with the ABA Trial Observation Task Force, the ABA International Human Rights Committee, and the ABA International Refugee Law Committee. In addition, she is Past Chair of the International Law Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association and a member of the Mentoring Committees of the American Society of International Law and the Philadelphia Bar Association.
In addition to her work with the ICC, Ms. Adler was a founding member of the International Criminal Bar (ICB), and was instrumental in developing and editing its Code of Ethics. At the November 2006 ICB meeting in The Hague, she was appointed to its Ethics and Mediation Committee. In the following year, she was appointed to the Bar's Lobbying/Liaison Committee to the International Criminal Court's Assembly of States Parties. Ms. Adler’s current interests include raising awareness on human trafficking in the Greater Philadelphia Region.
2018 Plenary Session, Assembly of States Party to the International Criminal Court at the Hague
Selected Works by Enid H. Adler
Enid H. Adler, Connected by Bars: Philadelphia, Lyon Lawyers Renew Ties, 75(3) Philadelphia Lawyer 22 (Fall 2012).
Enid H. Adler, My Part in the Chorus: One Lawyer’s Contribution to International Justice, 70(1) Philadelphia Lawyer 32 (Spring 2007).
Michael E. Scullin & Enid H. Adler, Parleys, Views, Francais, 60(3) Philadelphia Lawyer 26 (Fall 1997).
Enid H. Adler, Throw Them to the Wolves: Asylum and Asylum Law, 3 ILSA J. Int’l & Comp. L. 537 (1997).
