La Corte Penale Internazionale: potenzialità e limiti

The international Criminal Court: Strengths and Flaws


The international criminal court has been object of heavy debates even before it’s actual formation.
It’s roots lie in the early 19th century when Gustav Monyier, co - founder of the international Red Cross Committee proposed the creation of a permanent international criminal court to deal with the atrocities committed during the Franco - Prussian war waged in 1870 to 1871.
After the World War I the Treaty of Versailles called for the establishment of an ad hoc international court to investigate the crimes committed by the German armed forces and the government of the German Empire. For the first time a chief of state namely the emperor Wilhelm II was added to the list of the suspects to try. Both of the mentioned courts were not established due to the reluctance to hand over government members to an outside jurisdiction. The first working international criminal court was the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nürnberg. During the so called Nürnberg processes the most important exponents of the German government and armed forces where tried in front of a court made up by the victorious allied powers. The pragmatic success of this court and the gravity of the crimes committed during the second World War made clear that the establishment of a permanent criminal court that could effectively try war criminals while avoiding to exercise “revenge justice” was indispensable to assure long term peace.
Unfortunately the noble proposes of the United Nations for the creation of such a court where abandoned at the brink of Cold War. Only after the fall of the iron curtain did the international community resume it’s work regarding an international criminal court. The conflicts in Yugoslavia and Rwanda created the right setting for the establishment of two independent ad hoc tribunals with a restricted jurisdiction to those geographical areas.
Finally in 1998 the Rome Statute for the creation of the International Criminal Court was signed by a magnitude of States and formally started it’s work on July 1st 2002.
Within my work I tried to outline the unique history of the International Criminal Court and the long and contentious “Road to Rome”,to clarify it’s complex structure. Which crimes do fall within the competence of the Court, what are the trigger mechanisms for the court to gain jurisdiction, what is meant with the principle of auxiliary and how is the process structured and how strong are the ties of this independent body has with the United Nations? By analysing articles written by major international jurists and the Statute of Rome I tried to expose the points of strength and the flaws of that new born organism and the meaning that the Nürnberg Trials and the ICTY and ICTR had in drawing the Rome Statute.
The reluctance of some major States not to sign or ratify the Courts Statute was object of many discussions in the media and on political level. By analysing different sources I tried to get some light in the question why some states did not agree with the statute nevertheless the big compromises which had been made during it’s drawing.
Another question is how effective will the court be even with a Statute shaped to allow a certain consensus and what are the possibilities of implementation of the Statute in the future?
After having analysed all this mentioned issues I came to a conclusion congrous to the position of the mayor European States. The International Criminal Court is the only way to assure that war criminals and those who offend human rights will in future face heavy sentences and will not be able anymore to threaten the peace by their cruel means.
The international community must work closely together to ensure that the huge step taken with the drawing of the Statute of Rome and the set up of the International Criminal Court is not going to be in vain but the opening of a pacifier era for the international community.