International Criminal Court

1. Jurisdiction and Admissibility
of ICC
by Rittika Dattana
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2. International Criminal Court

World’s first permanent, international judicial body.

Purpose is to provide redress to victims when States
are unable or unwilling to do so.
As of May 2013,122 states have ratified the Court’s

treaty.
Up to date, 20 cases in 8 situations have been

brought before the ICC.
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3. Jurisdiction Of ICC

Jurisdiction is non-retroactive.

Components of Jurisdiction:
•
Temporal (ratione temporis) jurisdiction
-Crimes committed after the statute came into force
•
Personal (ratione personae) jurisdiction
-any person above 18 years can be prosecuted for ICC crime
•
Territorial (ratione loci) jurisdiction
-territory of any state party; or
-territory of non-state party agreed jurisdiction Of ICC by special. agreement
•
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Subject-matter (ratione materiae) jurisdiction

4. Crimes under ICC
The Statute encourages States to exercise their jurisdiction over the ICC

crimes. According to Article 5 of ICC Statute, these are:
o
Genocide
-intent to destroy in whole or part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such
o
Crime against Humanity
-widespread atrocities carried over persons, eg. Rape, forced pregnancy,
deprivation of FR’s, etc.
o
War Crimes
-crimes committed at times of international conflict and at time of internal armed conflict
o
Crime of Aggressions
-not defined and hence not into force
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5. Exercise of Jurisdiction
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6. ICC Case Checklist
Is the crime under ICC jurisdiction?
Is there temporal jurisdiction?
Was the case properly referred?
Is the domestic court unable or unwilling to prosecute?
ICC trial
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Art. 5
Art. 11
Art. 13
Art. 17

7. Admissibility
Exercises Jurisdiction only when:

- States are unable or are unwilling to act and refer to
ICC; or
-United Nations Security Council refers it to act.
The ICC cannot hear a case when a State has
decided to act.
Ne bis in idem


Article 20 allows the ICC to prosecute a person for a
crime referred to in the Statute, even after being tried for
the same act in a national court
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8. Criticism of the ICC

Lack of oversight, checks & balances

Selectivity

Sovereignty concerns

Makes peace process more difficult
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