The Realities of the International Criminal Justice System takes an analytical and critical look at the impact of the major instruments of international criminal justice since the 1990s with the advent of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia.

The International Criminal Court was established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. At its genesis the ICC was expected to help prevent atrocities from arising or escalating by ending the impunity of leaders and administering punishment for the commission of international crimes. More than a decade later, the ICC’s ability to achieve these broad aims has been questioned, as the ICC has reached only two guilty verdicts. In addition, some of the world’s major powers, including the United States, Russia and China, are not members of the ICC. These issues underscore a gap between the ideals of prevention and deterrence and the reality of the ICC’s functioning. This book explores the gaps, schisms, and contradictions that are increasingly defining the International Criminal Court, moving beyond existing legal, international relations, and political accounts of the ICC to analyse the Court from a criminological standpoint. By exploring the way different actors engage with the ICC and viewing the Court through the framework of late modernity, the book considers how gaps between rhetoric and reality arise in the work of the ICC. Contrary to much existing research, the book examines how such gaps and tensions can be productive as they enable the Court to navigate a complex, international environment driven by geopolitics. The International Criminal Court and Global Social Control will be of interest to academics, researchers, and advanced practitioners in international law, international relations, criminology, and political science. It will also be of use in upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate courses related to international criminal justice and globalization.

This book theorizes the ways in which states that are presumed to be weaker in the international system use the International Criminal Court (ICC) to advance their security and political interests. Ultimately, it contends that African states have managed to instrumentally and strategically use the international justice system to their advantage, a theoretical framework that challenges the “justice cascade” argument. The empirical work of this study focuses on four major themes around the intersection of power, states' interests, and the global governance of atrocity crimes: firstly, the strategic use of self-referrals to the ICC; secondly, complementarity between national and the international justice system; thirdly, the limits of state cooperation with international courts; and finally the use of international courts in domestic political conflicts. This book is valuable to students, scholars, and researchers who are interested in international relations, international criminal justice, peace and conflict studies, human rights, and African politics.

The International Criminal Court has significantly grown in importance and impact over the decade of its existence. This book assesses its impact, providing a comprehensive overview of its practice. It shows how the Court has contributed to major developments in international criminal law, and identifies the ways in which it is in need of reform.

The Rome Statute of the ICC at its Twentieth Anniversary (Achievements and Perspectives) is an edited book comprising of 13 chapters written by contributors to a conference dedicated to discuss the development, achievements and possible future evolution of the Rome Statute and international criminal law. The authors include academics from various legal systems, practitioners from the ICC and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, attorneys and other law experts. The International Criminal Court is the first universal international criminal tribunal. Though quite new, as the Rome Statute was adopted 20 years ago (1998) and only 16 years have passed since its entry into force, it has already developed interesting case-law and continues to elaborate on both substantive and procedural international criminal law. Contributors are Ivana Hrdličková, Claus Kreß, Tamás Lattmann, Jan Lhotský, Milan Lipovský, Iryna Marchuk, Josef Mrázek, Anna Richterová, Simon De Smet, Ondřej Svaček, Pavel Šturma, Kateřina Uhlířová, Kristýna Urbanová, Aloka Wanigasuriya.

Presents theories, practices and critiques alongside each other to engage students, scholars and professionals from multiple fields. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.