NCJ Number
177303
Date Published
1998
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This article advances reasons why the United States should refuse to ratify and fund the International Criminal Court.
Abstract
The stated mission of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is to prosecute persons charged with the most serious international crimes, such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. With 116 articles and more than 200 wording options to be debated, however, the ICC's draft statute is replete with unresolved issues and alarming possibilities. Specifically, the court threatens to diminish America's sovereignty. produce arbitrary and highly politicized "justice" and grow into a jurisdictional leviathan; the potential for jurisdictional creep is considerable and worrisome. Many of the legal safeguards American citizens enjoy under the US Constitution would be suspended if they were brought before the ICC. Endangered constitutional protections include the prohibition against double jeopardy, the right to trial by an impartial jury and the right of the accused to confront the witnesses against him. For those and other reasons, the US Senate and US House of Representatives should have sufficient grounds to, respectively, refuse to ratify and to fund the International Criminal Court. Notes