scholarly journals Doing Justice to the Political. The International Criminal Court in Uganda and Sudan: A Reply to Sarah Nouwen and Wouter Werner

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 1153-1160 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Schotel
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
The Political

New Gambian president will re-engage the West

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
The West ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Security Services ◽  
The Military

Significance If Barrow is inaugurated, it will mark the first peaceful transfer of power since the country gained independence. Incumbent Yahya Jammeh, who seized power in a 1994 military coup, was widely expected to claim victory, despite widespread frustration. With the economy stagnant and the unemployment rate among the highest in West Africa, Barrow successfully united much of the political opposition. Jammeh's concession was unexpected given the repression that his security services employed prior to the election. Impacts A new administration will look to draw prominent figures from across The Gambia's ethnic groups. Security will remain taut ahead of the upcoming inauguration and legislative elections scheduled for April. The new government could renew its commitment to the International Criminal Court (ICC). There could be widespread calls for the prosecution of Jammeh, which may provoke unrest within the military and new coup fears.

Kimberly Prost

2018 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 243-244
Author(s):  
Kimberly Prost
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Context ◽  
International Courts ◽  
International Court ◽  
Judicial Role

This is one of the issues that is perhaps the most challenging for judges who come to international courts from a national context. It is particularly important that a judge understands the political context in which they are judging. There is a tendency to say—and I have heard many colleagues at the ICTY and International Criminal Court (ICC) saying—“I am going to keep completely out of the politics because that's none of my business, I'm here to just to do my judicial role.” With great respect I think that is a fundamental mistake, because the reality is if a judge is going to defend her independence on an international court, she really has to understand the political context in which she is defending it.

A Tale of Two Institutions: The United Nations Security Council and the International Criminal Court

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Aloisi
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Relationship

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a judicial body that has been created as a politically independent judicial institution to prosecute the most serious international crimes. However, the political independence of the Court has been questioned considerably in the past decade because of the relationship between the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which has the power to refer or defer situations to the Court, and the ICC. In this work, I argue that in analyzing the relationship between the UNSC and ICC it is evident that clashing political and judicial interests have done a disservice to the implementation of international justice. I will focus on the two instances of referrals so far approved by the UNSC and highlight some of the political aspects that seem to be hindering and delaying, in spite of international pressures for UNSC attention, a referral of the situation in Syria.

scholarly journals The ICC-African Relationship: More Complex Than a Simplistic Dichotomy

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-61
Author(s):  
Emily Rowe
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
The Political ◽  
Selectivity Bias ◽  
Principle Of Complementarity

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) legitimacy, as an independent and unbiased international criminal court, has been brought into question, for all 30 official cases opened to this date are against African nationals. The ICC-African relationship is often framed in this excessively simplistic dichotomy: either the ICC is regarded as a Western neo-imperial colonial tool, or as a legal institutional champion of global human rights, rid of the political. Nevertheless, each obfuscates the complexity of this relationship by purporting either extreme.  Rather, it is the legal framework of the ICC that necessitates selectivity bias against nationals from developing countries, in particular, African states. The principle of complementarity and the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) referral power embedded in the ICC’s legal framework, allows for African nations to be disproportionately preliminarily examined, investigated, and then tried, while enabling warranted cases against nationals from developed states to circumvent such targeting. Therefore, the primary issue lies not in cases the ICC has opened, but in the cases it has not. 

scholarly journals Demystifying the Crime of Aggression: A Case for the International Criminal Court

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-164
Author(s):  
Edrine Wanyama
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Justice ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
Political Status ◽  
The Postponement

The crime of aggression forms one of the most controversial parts of international law in contrast with the need to protect national sovereignty of a given state without undue interference. Even with the adoption of the Rome Statute in 1998, the crime of aggression seems to have been sidelined in favour of other matters of international justice concerns that did not directly touch the political status of the different states parties. Jurisdictional issues concerning aggression were left unresolved. The term „aggression‟ was nevertheless given recognition in the year 2010 at a Review Conference of the Rome Statute held in Kampala, Uganda, from 31 May to 11 June 2010. However, the concept still remains on paper due to the postponement in establishing the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court till 2017. Currently, only four states have signed and ratified the amendments to the Rome Statute 1998 and they are to be enforced over the next couple of years. This article gives an overview of the crime of aggression. It examines some of the contentious issues that may arise in relation to the crime of aggression.

Operationalizing the Complementarity Principle

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benson Chinedu Olugbuo
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Trial Chamber ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Complementarity Principle ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
Judicial Systems

The chapter discusses the political and legal developments in Kenya, where President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Deputy President William Samoei Ruto were until recently facing ICC indictments for their alleged involvement with orchestrating crimes against humanity. It evaluates whether the decisions of Pre-Trial Chamber II and the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court authorizing the opening of an investigation and dismissing the admissibility challenge by Kenya are a turning point for the ICC in its relationship with national judicial systems in the wider fight against impunity. The chapter seeks to establish whether the decisions of the ICC Chambers limit Kenya’s primary responsibility to hold its citizens accountable. The chapter discusses the prosecutorial policy of ‘inaction’ adopted by the ICC judges and the effect of Pre-Trial Chamber II’s decision to authorize investigation in the Kenya situation based on a liberal interpretation of article 7(2)(a) of the Statute.

scholarly journals Collapsing Legitimacy: How the Crime of Aggression Could Affect the icc’s Legitimacy

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 517-542
Author(s):  
Frederick Cowell ◽  
Ana Leticia Magini
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legal Structure ◽  
Political Compromise ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Way

The International Criminal Court (icc) will gain the capacity to prosecute the crime of aggression in 2017. The Amendments to the Rome Statute are the product of a political compromise and have a complex legal structure with a high definitional threshold for an act of aggression alongside a bespoke jurisdictional arrangement. This legal structure is likely to mean that very few acts of aggression are considered crimes. Even when acts of aggression pass the threshold set out in the amendments, it is highly likely that any such prosecution would not succeed. This article argues that this is likely to significantly impact the legitimacy of the icc as an organization. To understand this, it is necessary to look at the different meanings of legitimacy before examining how the way in which the law is configured could undermine the political legitimacy of the organization as a whole.

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