Academic Paper from the year 2018 in the subject Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: 4, University of Nairobi, course: Bachelor of Laws, language: English, abstract: This paper is a critical analysis of how the game of world politics has jeopardized the efficacy of International Criminal Law (ICL). International Criminal Law exists within a political space. It’s a ship in an ocean filled with storms of supremacy battles, power games, sovereignty conversations, self-interests and a lot more of political tides. This paper seeks to analyse how safely the ICL ship sails in the fierce waters. It seeks to see how the tides have affected the stability of the ship. Will the ICL vessel safely get to dock or is it faced with a risk of shipwreck? The article concludes that there is indeed a danger of the ship being overthrown by the fierce waters and gives a recommendation to rescue the ship by adopting a definition of state sovereignty to the effect that all are above the law but bound by the law. This will make the objective of International Criminal Law realizable and deliver it from the fate of ineffectualness.

The Politics of International Criminal Law is an interdisciplinary collection of original research that examines the often noted but understudied political dimensions of International Criminal Law, and the challenges this nascent legal regime faces to its legitimacy in world affairs.

This volume considers a variety of key issues pertaining to the rights of defendants and victims at International Criminal Courts (ICTs) and explores how best to balance and enhance the rights of both in order to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of international criminal proceedings. The rights of victims are becoming an increasingly important issue at ICTs. Yet, at the same time, this has to be achieved without having a detrimental impact upon on the rights of the defence and the efficiency of the courts. This book provides analyses of issues on the rights of both the accused and the victims. By discussing matters concerning these two pivotal actors in international criminal justice within the same volume, the work highlights that there are intrinsic and intense conflicting and converging relationships between victims and the accused, particularly in terms of their rights. While most of the chapters focus mainly on either the accused or the victims, others discuss both at the same time. The work strikes a fine balance between, on the one hand, classic topics on the rights of the accused and the rights of the victims and, on the other, topics which have been largely unexplored and/or which require new angles or perspectives. Additionally, there are some chapters which approach both the rights of the accused and the rights of the victims in new contexts and/or under novel perspectives. The book as a whole provides a discussion of the two sides of this important coin of international criminal justice. The work will be an essential resource for academics, practitioners and students with an interest in the field of international criminal law. It will also be of interest to human rights scholars who are working with the rights of victims and the accused.

In recent years, justice-related and human rights issues have figured more and more prominently on the international political agenda. This expansion of the justice space is a product of a growing demand for accountability in world politics. Whether the issue is addressing heinous crimes such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in situations of armed conflict, confronting the inability or reluctance of governments to protect their own populations, or responding to the challenges posed by transnational terrorism; the international community has witnessed the proliferation of institutions and mechanisms, as well as the dynamic interplay between domestic and international processes, in the pursuit of justice-sensitive outcomes. International and hybrid tribunals, UN-led and domestic counter-terrorist initiatives, and the use of force for human protection purposes have demarcated the space within which ethical, political, and legal debates have unfolded in the quest for a more humane world order. The contributors of International Criminal Justice: Theoretical and Legal Perspectives address some of the most important issues and debates involved in this quest, and assess the merits of contending approaches to the promotion of international justice norms. This volume will contribute to the ongoing debate on the challenges, as well as opportunities, facing the justice agenda in its effort to shape developments in an increasingly interdependent world.

"This volume is an offshoot of the research activities of working group II ('international criminal tribunals') of the European Science Foundation's COST A28 Action on Human Rights, Peace and Security in EU Foreign Policy"--Page v.

This collection discusses appropriate methodologies for comparative research and applies this to the issue of trial transformation in the context of achieving justice in post-conflict societies. In developing arguments in relation to these problems, the authors use international sentencing and the question of victims' interests and expectations as a focus. The conclusions reached are wide-ranging and haighly significant in challenging existing conceptions for appreciating and giving effect to the justice demands of victims of war and social conflict. The themes developed demonstrate clearly how comparative contextual analysis facilitates our understanding of the legal and social contexts of international punishment and how this understanding can provide the basis for expanding the role of restorative international criminal justice within the context of international criminal trials.

"Prosecuting international crimes in Africa contributes to the understanding of international criminal justice in Africa. The books argues for the rule of law, respect for human rights and the eradication of a culture of impunity in Africa. it is a product of peer-reviewed contributions from graduates of the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, where the Master's degree programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa has been presented since 2000"--Back cover.