Does the International Criminal Court Have a Future or Is It Just an Illusion?
Does the International Criminal Court Have a Future or Is It Just an Illusion?

Summary/Abstract: For international criminal law 2002 was a great year. The act that gave the International Criminal Court (hereinafter the Court or ICC), jurisdiction over several heinous crimes committed during and after an armed conflict, the so called Rome Statute, entered into force, establishing the International Criminal Court, the first permanent court in this field. By the adoption and ratification of the Statute, the Court is able to try those liable for crimes that fall under its jurisdiction committed during or after an armed conflict of an international or intern nature or an attack against the civilian population. The establishment of the Court was the result of much debate and many compromises, not only from the procedural point of view but as well from the material one, e.g. it took them five years to come up with a definition for the Crime of Aggression. From the beginning, the ICC was confronted with some recognition problems, one of its fiercely defenders, the United States of America, decided not to ratify the founding treaty and even withdraw from the already in 1998, signed Statute. Fourteen years later, countries started to leave the Statute and the Court as they felt it does not fulfil its purpose anymore and its more or less biased, by as they said its focus only on the African Countries. The following article will focus on the issues the Court is facing nowadays.

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