JUDGING MORE BY JUDGING LESS: ISSUES AND LIMITS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (original) (raw)
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BiLD Law Journal 5(1), 2020
This study is critically analysing the lack of universal jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court (ICC) as to why the ICC is denied universal jurisdiction and what are the consequences resulting therefrom on realisation of international criminal justice. Findings show that, lack of universal jurisdiction to the ICC defeats the initial purpose of setting up a permanent ICC. Because, some nationals whose nations are not state parties to the ICC cannot be prosecuted. Meaning, an individual can commit an international crime and go unpunished by the sole reason that his state is not a party to the ICC. Seeing this threat, the Rome Statute provides for some referrals. Accordingly, cases to the ICC can be referred by state party to the Rome Statute, or by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) when acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, or by non-state party when making declaration to accept the ICC jurisdiction in relation to a case, or by the prosecutor of the ICC by initiating investigations proprio motu. The important question to be asked is that are these referrals effective in obtaining international criminal justice? Evidently the issue is controversial. It is therefore important for the ICC to be accorded universal jurisdiction. This move is crucial in reducing often created ad hoc tribunals to serve the same purpose of which the ICC was created to serve. But also, the UNSC will be effective dealing with other matters of the international peace and security.
This paper covers a review of the article written by Damaska 1 which contains a great deal of critical analysis on the desired legal foundation of the International Criminal Court and doings of the court in reality since 2002. Our aim is to try to pay our attention to the real International Criminal Court and to answer the question of what the Court did so far. As will be seen through the paper, the role of the court in restorative justice discipline mentioning the retributive and/or restorative character of this permanent international criminal court will be discussed. It is, of course, not so far away to release the complementarity principle labelled in the Rome Statute. In this regard, the associations between the complementarity and the sovereignty will be explored giving example from reality such as Libya and Syria, and the principle will be also seen as a stabilizer-mechanism and a well-balanced tool between the sovereignty and universal jurisdiction. As a consequence, it can be said that regarding all points posted below, "just being in existence is not enough."
This article seeks to acclaim the remarkable work done by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to date, recognizing and lauding its invaluable contribution brought to international criminal justice but also considers the various challenges faced by the ICC to date as well as its embedded flaws. This article is an academic piece of work based on the personal opinions of the author and opinions of academic commentaries. The overarching origin of all challenges can be argued to arise preponderantly from the drafting of the Rome Statute as the ICC has been established and is governed by the Rome Statute. This article provides a methodical analysis of such treaty with suggestions for reform.
Overview and Significance of the International Criminal Court (ICC)
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Established as an intergovernmental organization, the International Criminal Court (the ICC or "the Court") is specifically designed to deal with the international crimes that are thought to be most severe and serious. It has generally been observed that the commissions of those crimes had gone unpunished, making the impunity of the perpetrators a usual and ordinary practice in international relations. Although the idea that a permanent international criminal court is strongly needed, and therefore, should be created, lingered for a very long time, the realization of that idea has become quite recently. Nation-states, the major and primary actors of the international system, have generally been lenient, if not reluctant, in addressing those kinds of acts. Particularly, concerns over sovereign rights of the states have made them reluctant to get together to discuss the issue up until 1998. Since sovereignty has been the underlying principle in the operation of the international system that is generally believed to be built by sovereign nation-states, states have long refrained from dealing with the issues pertinent to even the gravest crimes in order to show their tribute to the principle of nonintervention. As a consequence, apart from a few examples, human rights issues in
The aims of this paper are: 1) To test whether the “integrated approach” exists in the areas of individual criminal responsibility and the international criminal justice system; 2) To determine if the current system of international criminal justice, and in particular that established by the International Criminal Court Statute, is satisfactory; 3) To verify whether the 2010 Review Conference of the ICC Statute has improved international criminal justice; 4) To examine if the practices of both ICC and other institutions have produced any further improvements; and5) Finally, to explore the necessary reforms to be made in order to turn the ICC into a more effective international criminal justice institution.
THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT IN WORLD POLITICS
The article discusses the importance of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a recently established intergovernmental organization to address the most heinous crimes. This organization is fi rst evaluated with respect to its impact on the notion of national sovereignty, upon which the international system has long been based. Then the contribution of global civil society in the creation of the ICC is outlined in order to demonstrate that the global order is gradually departing from being state-centric. And fi nally, the US opposition to the ICC is briefl y examined as that opposition is extremely relevant to the subject, given that the US is regarded as the sole superpower, which is supposed to have a determinative role in the conduct of global politics.
The Creation and Expansion of the International Criminal Court
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International courts have proliferated in the international system in the past century, with one hundred judicial or quasi-judicial bodies currently in existence. While the supply of international courts has increased substantially, state level support for international courts varies across states, across courts, and over time. This paper focuses on the cross-sectional and temporal variation in state level support for a particular court, the International Criminal Court (ICC). The authors argue that domestic legal systems create different predispositions with respect to states’ willingness to join adjudicatory bodies and the design of their commitments to international courts. Negotiators involved in the creation of the ICC pushed for rules and procedures that mimicked those of their domestic legal systems to help reduce uncertainty regarding the court’s future behavior and decision-making processes. This interesting process of legal bargaining led to the creation of a sui generis c...
ISIL YEARBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN AND REFUGEE LAW, 2022
International Criminal Court (ICC) has grown to a centre of a “system of global criminal justice” establishing international criminal jurisprudence aptly in a more formal sense. The development of jurisprudence of ICC during the last 20 years since the adoption of the Rome Statute has been particularly rich and manifold within and outside the system created by the Rome Statute.The role of ICC and its decisions in the last twenty years of its ebb and flow of practice, have created a mindset at the international level that no impunity for all victims of crimes. However, the ICC is often criticized for not free from ‘selectivity’ of situations and cases. Therefore, the two-decade of works of ICC offers a glimpse into the legal and political complexities. This paper is a critical analysis of two decades journey of the ICC and its offices which worked on various kinds of situations that existed in different parts of the globe. The main research objective of this work is to analyse its role in the development of international peace and justice through prosecuting the offenders of heinous crimes within its jurisdiction and fostering international criminal law. The work will evaluate the functioning and performance of the ICC and its organs to see how far the objective of the Rome Statute is fulfilled in the last twenty years. It examines major areas of jurisprudence and practice, as well as the importance of the Court in the depolarized global world vis-a-vis emerging challenges between developed and superpower countries. A comprehensive description of this development would, however, by far exceed the bounds of the present article. KEYWORDS: International criminal law, ICC, Impunity, Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), International peace.
THE JURISDICTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT IN AFICAN POLITIES: A REALITY OR A MYTH
It is indeed a trite law that the jurisdiction of courts is radical and crucial. Where a court lacks jurisdiction over a matter, it lacks the vires to entertain and deliberate on it. A defect in competence is therefore fatal in that, it renders an entire proceedings, trial or findings invalid, null and void abinitio however brilliantly they must have been conducted and concluded . The International Criminal Court is an independent judicial institution with the power to try and punish individuals for the most serious crimes of International concern such as genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression, and war crimes. First approved in 1998 vide a treaty known as the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court came into being on the 1st July, 2002, with its headquarters in The Hague. However, its proceeding may hold anywhere . The International Criminal Court has handled lots of cases, but the parties subject to prosecution before the court raise questions of serious concern. The objective of this paper is to analyze the jurisdiction situation of the International Criminal Court vis – a- vis the reality of the existence of the court in the Africa polities, the limitation it had set down for the inefficient operation of the African Human Right Court, the usage of ICC as a witch hunting stage by Africans, the effect of Article 12 (3) and Article 13 (b) and the general challenges of the African States, with view to proffering recommendations to that effect.