On Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote a blistering missive in the Wall Street Journal unveiling plans to dismantle the International Criminal Court (ICC). He claimed it threatened “US soldiers, police officers, Border Patrol agents and elected leaders” under international laws that “we neither consent to nor control”.

The State Department then unveiled the steps it would take to target the court, which include pressuring allies to resist ICC attempts to prosecute Americans, travel bans on ICC officials, and increased sanctions on the court.

The State Department called the court an “intolerable threat to US sovereignty”.

But Rubio’s claims show a wilful ignorance of international law, out of step with someone of his office.

For example, the four core international crimes under the ICC’s jurisdiction – genocide, aggression, crimes against humanity and war crimes – are considered a “peremptory norm”. This means they are universally applicable to all states, and no country can choose to violate or ignore them.

Ironically, Rubio is also seeking to override the sovereignty of all the states that have joined the ICC. As Kenneth Roth, the former head of Human Right Watch, has said, Rubio is ignoring “the sovereign right of other nations to invoke the ICC for crimes........

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