Judicial Module 4: International Criminal Court
In this module we will review the founding and objectives of the world’s first permanent International Criminal Court (ICC). We will discuss how the ICC differs from other international war crimes tribunals and the opportunities and difficulties it has faced in its first years of operation.
Key Questions:
How is the ICC different from other international war crimes tribunals?
Where has the ICC issued arrest warrants against suspect? Who are these suspects and what are the alleged crimes?
What difficulties has the ICC faced since it became operational in 2002?
Film (to be viewed in class):
“The Reckoning” — The story of the establishment and objectives of the International Criminal Court, available at http://vimeo.com/9160246.
Required Readings:
Preamble, Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, available at http://untreaty.un.org/cod/icc/STATUTE/99_corr/preamble.htm.
Benjamin N. Schiff, Building the International Criminal Court (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008): 68-92; 194-210; 226-241.
Marlies Glasius, The International Criminal Court: A Global Civil Society Achievement (New York: Routledge, 2006): 47-76.
Nick Grono and Adam O’Brien, “Justice in Conflict? The ICC and Peace Processes,” in Nicholas Waddell and Phil Clark (eds), Courting Conflict? Justice, Peace and the ICC in Africa (London: Royal African Society, March 2008): 13-19.
Phil Clark, “Law, Politics and Pragmatism: The ICC and Case Selection in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda,” in Nicholas Waddell and Phil Clark (eds), Courting Conflict? Justice, Peace and the ICC in Africa (London: Royal African Society, March 2008): 37-44.
“The International Criminal Court: A New Approach to International Relations,” interview with Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor of the ICC, and John Bellinger III at the Council on Foreign Relations, available at http://www.cfr.org/international-criminal-courts-and-tribunals/international-criminal-court-new-approach-international-relations/p29351.
Selected Online Resources:
To help clear up some of the mysteries of international criminal law, the authors of the WrongingRights blog, Kate Cronin-Furman and Amanda Taub, offer this podcast: http://developmentdrums.org/19.
Prof. Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, “International Criminal Tribunals: Experiments? Works in progress? Institutions that are here for good, or maybe not?”, available at http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/international-criminal-tribunals.
Prof. Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, “The permanent International Criminal Court – the ICC – and Africa”, available at http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-permanent-international-criminal-court-%E2%80%93-the-icc-and-africa.
General Resources:
International Criminal Court, available at http://www.icc-cpi.int.
Coalition for the International Criminal Court, available at http://www.iccnow.org.
The Global Policy Forum’s description, available at http://www.globalpolicy.org/international-justice/the-international-criminal-court.html.