THE POLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE REDUX

This chapter examines historical discussions in a new legal setting, that of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a permanent international justice body that will outlast the ICTY and ICTR and adjudicate international crimes for some time to come. The ICC is the premier court in a second generation of international criminal justice institutions established in the twenty-first century, along with the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. These newer courts have all been shaped by the experiences at the two ad hoc tribunals, and their designers have sought to avoid previous missteps while carrying forward the good practice developed. Because the ICC is such a relatively new court that has yet to complete its first trial, my comments must be fairly tentative and provisional.

A brief history of the Court, including a description of its structure and mandate, is roughly as follows: on 17 July 1998 in Rome, 120 countries signed on to the Statute of the International Criminal Court. The ICC Statute entered into force on 1 July 2002 after ratification by sixty countries. At the time of writing, 111 of 192 member nations of the United Nations had signed and ratified the treaty. Article 5 of the ICC Statute grants the Court jurisdiction over four crimes deemed to be “the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole,” namely genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.