For an effective international law : from the preparatory committee to the diplomatic conference for the establishment of an international criminal court : the commitment of the international community [Roger S. Clark]

Abstract

This is about a very practical set of issues raised in the Report of the Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court ("I.C.C.") at its 1996 meetings, under the heading "Establishment of the Court and relationship between the Court and the United Nations". The Report breaks the general topic down into three sub-issues: status and nature of the Court and method of its establishment; relationship between the Court and the United Nations; and, financing of the Court. Like most of the myriad of issues that have been addressed in the preparatory efforts, how the general topic and each of its sub-parts gets ultimately resolved is contingent upon how other parts of the puzzle are ultimately put together. I hope that examining the present issues may serve to bring into sharper perspective some of the more obviously cosmic issues that are debated. In particular, they may point in the direction of modesty in the scope of the Court's jurisdiction. I want also to highlight some of the complexities of the powers of the General Assembly, and the complicated relationship between international standards and their domestic application.