Page 187 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

1006 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the
circumstances confronting him. • St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)

adhoc (for the particular end or case at hand) with lim- for trial by jury; instead it follows the civil law tradition
ited jurisdiction. of employing a panel of judges to decide questions of
fact and law. Eighteen judges, serving staggered nine-year
State Sovereignty terms, are permanent members of the court and are
The ICC is designed to transcend politics because trials elected by secret ballot at a meeting of the Assembly of
theoretically will be international, impartial, and nonse- the States Parties.
lective. State sovereignty is protected because the jurisdic- The judges elect the presidency and constitute the
tion of the ICC is restricted to a relatively small number chambers. On 11 March 2003, the judges elected Judge
of cases whose criminality is generally believed to be Philippe Kirsch (Canada) as president, Judge Akua
beyond dispute.Terrorism and drug-smuggling cases, in- Kuenyehia (Ghana) as first vice president, and Judge Eliz-
volving matters subject to widely different interpretations, abeth Odio Benito (Costa Rica) as second vice president.
remain under national jurisdiction. Yet, a number of On 22 April 2003, the nations participating in ICC
nations, especially the United States, doubted that the chose Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina as the first
ICC as created would be truly nonpolitical. Seven nations chief prosecutor. In his capacity as an Argentine attorney,
(the United States, China, Libya, Iraq, Israel, Qatar, and Moreno-Ocampo has prosecuted Nazi war criminals,
Yemen) voted against the establishment of the ICC, Chilean secret police officials, and Argentine leaders of
chiefly because of concerns over state sovereignty. the “Dirty War.” The last element of the ICC, the registry,
The most contentious question involving the ICC is responsible for the nonjudicial aspects of the admin-
revolvesaroundthelevelofindependencethatitpossesses istration and servicing of the court, such as finance, trans-
inregardtonationalcourtsandtheU.N.SecurityCouncil. lation, building management, procurement, personnel, as
The ICC exercises jurisdiction only when national courts well as services, which are unique to an international
of the country in which the crime took place or whose cit- court.The latter include administration of legal aid mat-
izensareaccusedareunableorunwillingtoprosecute.The ters, defense counsel, court management, and a deten-
UnitedStatesseeksanICCthatwouldbecontrolledbythe tion unit. In addition, in a revolutionary development, a
Security Council under the reasoning that, as the sole victims and witnesses unit is set up within the registry.
remaining superpower, it was expected to intervene to This unit enables victims to participate in legal proce-
maintainorrestoreinternationalpeaceandsecurityandto dures and claim compensation for the first time in the
halthumanitariancatastrophesallovertheworld.U.S.ful- history of international criminal justice. Victims may
fillment of that expectation—the United States had a mil- include rape victims in need of trauma counseling, vil-
itary presence in 110 of the 191 member nations of the lagers in need of money to rebuild homes and businesses
United Nations and more than 400,000 troops stationed lost in fighting, and child soldiers who were forced into
overseasin2003—wouldleaveU.S.personnelvulnerable military service and who may have suffered great ordeals.
to the potential jurisdiction of the ICC.The United States As of 2004 the ICC had not yet begun to conduct
fears that an independent prosecutor, motivated by anti- prosecutions. During its brief existence it has received
Americanism,mightsingleoutU.S.militarypersonnelfor hundreds of reports of violations sent by people and
persecutionandthattheywouldbedeniedtheprotections nongovernmental organizations from around the world.
guaranteed by the U.S.Constitution. After reviewing the reports, the ICC expects to begin
investigations but only after the prosecutor gets approval
Structure for doing so from the three judges comprising the pretrial
Many legal authorities have challenged such fears, citing division chamber of the court.
in particular the structure of the ICC. The court is com-
Caryn E. Neumann
posed of the presidency, the chambers, the office of the
prosecutor, and the registry. The ICC does not provide See also International Law