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Document Type

Book Section

Publication Date

2021

Publication Title

The Past, Present and Future of the International Criminal Court

Abstract

This essay traces the history of the International Criminal Court from its establishment in 1998 until the current day. It briefly surveys the history of the Court’s founding and evokes many of its current challenges and innovative aspects of its jurisprudence, particularly regarding jurisdiction, immunities, and admissibility, including decisions relating to the Situations in Afghanistan, Bangladesh/Myanmar, Libya, Palestine, and Sudan. As the essay notes, although many challenges have emerged from internal difficulties the Court has faced or design elements of the Statute, external challenges arising from the geopolitical environment within which it operates exist as well. Despite these problems, which included the imposition of harsh sanctions by the U.S. government in 2020, the ICC has persevered because its power derives from its Member States and its activities and operations are firmly grounded in principles of general international law. The essay concludes that the pressing social problems for which the ICC was established remain urgent today. Hence, the international community should “lean in” and embrace targeted reforms of the Court that can strengthen it and continue to work for universal ratification of the Statute.

Keywords

International Criminal Court, International Courts and Tribunals, Human Rights, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes, Globalization, Nuremberg, International Criminal Law, Geopolitics, Transitional Justice

Publication Citation

Leila Nadya Sadat, Justice without Fear or Favour? The Uncertain Future of the International Criminal Court, in The Past, Present and Future of the International Criminal Court 121-157 (Alexander Heinze & Viviane E. Dittrich eds., 2021)

Comments

Full publication available at https://www.toaep.org/nas-pdf/5-dittrich-heinze

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