The International Criminal Court
- LAST REVIEWED: 24 February 2021
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 August 2022
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199796953-0156
- LAST REVIEWED: 24 February 2021
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 August 2022
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199796953-0156
Introduction
The International Criminal Court (ICC or “the Court”) is the world’s first permanent international court enforcing international criminal law. The ICC has attracted enormous scholarly attention from both lawyers and non-lawyers. Entire journals have been filled with commentaries on its legal framework—primarily the Rome Statute by which it was created—and the case-law developing that framework. But as the breadth of research on the ICC in non-legal disciplines demonstrates, the Court’s relevance goes far beyond the application and development of international criminal law; even without much judicial activity, it produces wide-ranging consequences in the world. Much material on the ICC is subsumed in literature on international criminal tribunals or international criminal law generally. This article focuses on literature specific to the ICC rather than international criminal law (ICL) to include a different set of engagements and questions than substantive criminal law (for instance genocide, modes of liability, or defenses). Separate Oxford Bibliographies entries exist for these topics.
Primary Materials
Before reading any of the secondary material, one should consult core primary material such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (keeping in mind the amendments, and the procedures for the entry into force of the amendments, reflected in Depository Notification C.N.533.2010.TREATIES-6, Depository Notification C.N.651.2010.TREATIES-8, Depository Notification C.N.7.2016.TREATIES-XVIII.10), Depository Notification C.N.116.2018.TREATIES-XVIII.10, the Rules of Procedure and Evidence and the Elements of Crimes. It is advisable to check the literature against these primary materials: some secondary material is based on assumptions about, rather than a careful reading of, the legal framework. For the case law, see International Criminal Court or the ICC Legal Tools database.
Depository Notification C.N.533.2010.TREATIES-6: Adoption of Amendment to Article 8.
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This depository notification of the Secretary-General of the United Nations contains the amendment to Article 8 of the Statute adopted by the Review Conference of the Rome Statute, and the procedure for the entry into force of the amendment. As a result of the amendment, the Court now has jurisdiction over three offenses involving the use of certain weapons when used in situations of non-international armed conflicts.
Depository Notification C.N.651.2010.TREATIES-8: Adoption of Amendments on the Crime of Aggression.
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This depository notification of the Secretary-General of the United Nations contains amendments adopted with respect to the crime of aggression by the 2010 Review Conference of the Rome Statute, and the procedure for the entry into force of the amendments. The amendments include, inter alia, a definition of the crime of aggression and provisions on the Court’s jurisdiction over the crime.
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This depository notification of the Secretary-General of the United Nations contains the amendment to Article 124 adopted by the Fourteenth Assembly of States Parties, and refers to the provisions for its entry into force. The amendment deletes Article 124, a “transitional provision” that allowed a state, upon becoming a party to the Statute, to declare that for a period of seven years it would not accept the Court’s jurisdiction over war crimes committed on its territory or by its nationals.
Depository Notification C.N.116.2018. TREATIES-XVIII.10: Amendment to Article 8 of the Rome Statute.
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This depository notification of the Secretary-General of the United Nations contains the amendment to Article 8 of the Statute adopted by the Sixteenth Assembly of States Parties. The amendment makes it an offence to use weapons containing microbial or other biological agents or toxins during armed conflict.
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As per Article 9 of the Rome Statute, the Assembly of States Parties has adopted Elements of Crimes to assist the Court in the interpretation and application of the articles containing the definitions of the crimes within its subject-matter jurisdiction.
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This free online database includes much more than ICC records, but when it comes to finding ICC decisions, it is more user friendly than the ICC’s website.
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The Court’s website contains many essential primary materials on the Court’s work, including decisions and judgments. The updated website has made it easier to search for specific documents. For case law, one can either search per investigation and case (click on the tab “situations and cases”) or use the “documents” shortcut to “court records.”
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
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Adopted in Rome on 17 July 1998, the Statute is the treaty that both creates and governs the ICC. After sixty ratifications, the Statute entered into force on 1 July 2002. In addition to a preamble setting forth the aspirations of the States Parties, the Statute contains provisions on the Court’s establishment, jurisdiction, admissibility and applicable law, general principles of criminal law, composition and administration, investigation, and prosecution, as well as the trial, penalties, international cooperation, the Assembly of States Parties, and treaty law.
Rules of Procedure and Evidence.
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In accordance with Article 51(1) of the Statute, the ICC’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence were adopted by the Assembly of States Parties at its first session in September 2002 (ICC-ASP/1/3). In the case of conflict between the Statute and the Rules, the Statute prevails (Article 51(5) Statute). The Assembly of States Parties periodically amends the Rules (ICC-ASP/10/Res.1, ICC-ASP/11/Res.2, ICC-ASP/12/Res.7, and ICC-ASP/17/Res.2), so it is useful to consult the ICC website to ensure one is reading the latest version.
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Article
- Act of State Doctrine
- Africa and Intellectual Property Rights for Plant Varietie...
- African Approaches to International Law
- African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Af...
- Africa’s International Intellectual Property Law Regimes
- Africa’s International Investment Law Regimes
- Agreements, Bilateral and Regional Trade
- Agreements, Multilateral Environmental
- Aliens
- Applicable Law in Investment Agreements
- Archipelagic States
- Arctic Region
- Armed Opposition Groups
- Aut Dedere Aut Judicare
- Balance of Power
- Bandung Conference, The
- Boundaries
- British Mandate of Palestine and International Law, The
- Children's Rights
- Civil Service, International
- Civil-Military Relations
- Codification
- Cold War International Law
- Collective Security
- Command Responsibility
- Common Heritage of Mankind
- Complementarity Principle
- Compliance in International Law
- Conspiracy/Joint Criminal Enterprise
- Constitutional Law, International
- Consular Relations
- Contemporary Catholic Approaches
- Continental Shelf, Idea and Limits of the
- Cooperation in Criminal Matters, Cross-Border
- Countermeasures
- Courts, International
- Crimes against Humanity
- Criminal Law, International
- Cultural Rights
- Cyber Espionage
- Cyber Warfare
- Debt, Sovereign
- Decolonization in International Law
- Democracy
- Development Law, International
- Disarmament in International Law
- Discrimination
- Disputes, Peaceful Settlement of
- Drugs, International Regulation, and Criminal Liability
- Early 19th Century, 1789-1870
- Ecological Restoration and International Law
- Economic Law, International
- Effectiveness and Evolution in Treaty Interpretation
- Enforced Disappearances in International Law
- Enforcement of Human Rights
- Environmental Compliance Mechanisms
- Environmental Institutions, International
- Environmental Law, International
- Estoppel
- European Arrest Warrant
- Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Treaties
- Fascism and International Law
- Feminist Approaches to International Law
- Financial Law, International
- Forceful Intervention for Protection of Human Rights in Af...
- Foreign Investment
- Fragmentation
- Freedom of Expression
- French Revolution
- Gender and International Law, Theoretical and Methodologic...
- Gender and International Security
- General Customary Law
- General Principles of Law
- Genocide
- Georgia and International Law
- Grotius, Hugo
- Habeas Corpus
- Hijaz and International Law, The
- History of International Law, 1550–1700
- Hostilities, Direct Participation in
- Human Rights
- Human Rights and Regional Protection, Relativism and Unive...
- Human Rights, European Court of
- Human Rights, Foundations of
- Human Trafficking
- Hybrid International Criminal Tribunals
- Immunities
- Immunity, Sovereign
- Indigenous Peoples
- Individual Criminal Responsibility
- Institutional Law
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and Inte...
- International and Non-International Armed Conflict, Detent...
- International Committee of the Red Cross
- International Community
- International Court of Justice
- International Criminal Court, The
- International Criminal Law, Complicity in
- International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
- International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ...
- International Fisheries Law
- International Humanitarian Law
- International Humanitarian Law, Targeting in
- International Investment Agreements, Fair and Equitable Tr...
- International Investment Arbitration
- International Investment Law, Expropriation in
- International Law, Aggression in
- International Law, Amnesty and
- International Law and Economic Development
- International Law, Anthropology and
- International Law, Big Data and
- International Law, Climate Change and
- International Law, Derogations and Reservations in
- International Law, Dispute Settlement in
- International Law, Ecofeminism and
- International Law, Espionage in
- International Law, Hegemony in
- International Law in Greek
- International Law in Italian
- International Law in Northeast Asia
- International Law in Portuguese
- International Law in Turkish
- International Law, Marxist Approaches to
- International Law, Military Intervention in
- International Law, Money Laundering in
- International Law, Monism and Dualism in
- International Law, Peacekeeping in
- International Law, Proportionality in
- International Law, Reasonableness in
- International Law, Recognition in
- International Law, Self-Determination in
- International Law, State Responsibility in
- International Law, State Succession in
- International Law, the State in
- International Law, The Turkish-Greek Population Exchange a...
- International Law, the Turn to History in
- International Law, Trade and Development in
- International Law, Unequal Treaties in
- International Law, Use of Force in
- International Regulation of the Internet
- International Rule of Law, An
- International Territorial Administration
- International Trade and Human Rights
- Intervention, Humanitarian
- Investment Protection Treaties
- Investor-State Conciliation and Mediation
- Iran and International Law
- Iraq War, Britain and the
- Islamic Cooperation, International Law and the Organizatio...
- Islamic International Law
- Islamic Law and Human Rights
- Islands
- Jerusalem
- Jurisdiction
- Jurisprudence (Judicial Law-Making)
- Jus Cogens
- Just War
- Landlocked Countries and the Law of the Sea
- Law of the Sea
- Law of Treaties, The
- Law-Making by Non-State Actors
- League of Nations, The
- Lebanon, Special Tribunal for
- Legal Status of Military Forces Abroad
- Liability for International Environmental Harm
- Liberation and Resistance Movements
- Mandates in International Law
- Maritime Delimitation
- Martens Clause
- Medieval International Law
- Mens Rea, International Crimes
- Middle East Boundaries and State Formation
- Migration
- Military Necessity
- Military Occupation
- Minorities
- Modes of Participation
- Most-Favored-Nation Clauses
- Multinational Corporations in International Law
- Nationality and Statelessness
- Natural Law
- Neutrality
- New Approaches to International Law
- New Haven School of International Law, The
- Non liquet
- Noninternational Armed Conflict (“Civil War”)
- Nonstate Actors
- Nuclear Non-Proliferation
- Nuremberg Trials
- Organizations, International
- Pacifism in International Law
- Palestine (and the Israel Question)
- Peace Treaties
- Piracy
- Political Science, International Law and
- Positivism
- Private Military and Security Companies
- Protection, Diplomatic
- Public Interest, Human Rights, and Foreign Investment
- Queering International Law
- Rational Choice Theory
- Recognition of Foreign Penal Judgments
- Refugees
- Rendition, Extraterritorial Abduction, and Extraordinary R...
- Reparations
- Russian Approaches to International Law
- Sanctions, International
- Sanctions, International
- Secession
- Self-Defense
- Slavery
- Soft Law
- Space Law
- Spanish School of International Law (c. 16th and 17th Cent...
- Sports Law, International
- State of Necessity
- Superior Orders
- Taba Arbitration, The
- Teaching International Law
- Territorial Title
- Terrorism
- The 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict and International Law
- The Ottoman Empire and International Law
- Theory, Critical International Legal
- Tibet
- Tokyo Trials, The
- Torture
- Transnational Constitutionalism, Africa and
- Transnational Corruption
- Treaty Interpretation
- Ukrainian Approaches
- UN Partition Plan for Palestine and International Law, The
- UN Security Council, Women and the
- Underwater Cultural Heritage
- Unilateral Acts
- United Nations and its Principal Organs, The
- Universal Jurisdiction
- Uti Possidetis Iuris
- Vatican and the Holy See
- Victims’ Rights, International Criminal Law, and Proceedin...
- War Crimes
- Watercourses, International
- Western Sahara