CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Brick by Brick: Dismantling the ICC and the Rule of Law

Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s denunciations of the International Criminal Court (ICC) last July are only the latest U.S. threats against that judicial body. In June and July,1998 the United States participated in the drafting of the Rome Statute creating the ICC. But America refused to ratify the Statute when it became effective in 2002. The U.S. remains a non-member.

ICC jurisdiction is limited to crimes that fall into one of four specified categories: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression (the use of armed force against the sovereignty or political independence of another State). Note also that the ICC prosecutes individuals, while the jurisdiction of its sister court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ “World Court”) accepts only cases brought against States.

President Trump and his predecessors have feared that U.S. sovereignty would be impaired if an ICC prosecutor could target an American citizen under the territorial provision in section 12 of the Rome Statute. Indeed, the Court has already begun investigating possible war crimes by members of the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

It should be noted that any government can avoid ICC jurisdiction if it prosecutes the accused in its own courts.

No U.S. official has lashed out against the International Criminal Court as sharply as Marco Rubio.  In various fora in mid-July this year Rubio threatened to “dismantle the ICC, brick by brick if necessary.”  Denouncing the Court as a “sham” and a “corrupt and fatally politicized” institution, he followed up in August with new financial........

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