The International Criminal Court and its effectiveness

Abstract

The formation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been hailed as one of the most significant developments and achievements toward the goal of achieving peace and justice for humality. The birth of this permanent international court has been very tedious and difficult, not to mention controversial. It is yet to be seen how the ICC will function and carry out its duties under the existing climate of political, security and legal apprehension. The objectives of my thesis are first to present a historical background made to establish the different International criminal Courts with an evaluation of previous successes and failures ; second to highlight the process that enventually led to the formation of the ICC through the Rome Statute that was initiated in 1998 ; third to describe the organization of the ICC and its structure ; to discuss the potentials of the court, its objectives in detail ; and fourth to discuss and analyze the future outlooks under current controversies and dilemmas, specifically the objections of the United States to the operation of the court, the various approaches used by States to deal with the legal and constitutional demands of the court, and the expected role that the ICC will play in the evolution of human history. Evidently, the ICC has barely started functioning and it will be fairly impossible to access its performance, but the fact that the International community has finally come to agree on the formation of such a court is reason enough to believe that international law will play a more significant role in attaining world order, peace and justice than any previous time in history.