Conversations in Conflict Studies presents Cora True-Frost

"Tools of the Weak:  The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and the UN Security Council."  Cora True-Frost,  Assistant Professor of Law at the Syracuse University College of Law.  

Description: The International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “the Court”) is an independent institution.  It is mandated to prosecute “the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole.”  Despite the Court’s formal autonomy, however, its founding treaty, the Rome Statute, permits the powerful and political UN Security Council (“Council” or “UNSC”), inter alia, to refer to the Court situations, including those in non-State Parties, and to defer the Court’s ongoing proceedings. The question of the Court’s ability to be effective is ripe as the ICC enters its fourteenth year of operations and continues to be beleaguered by criticism.  Supporters worry about its longevity and have curtailed their expectations of the Court’s potential.  In addition, perceived bias, to the extent that states’ protests are sincere, has damaged states parties’ understandings of the independence and fairness of the Court—indeed, Kenya and South Africa have openly considered withdrawing from the Rome Statute, and in January 2016, the African Union recommended that its Open-Ended Committee of African Ministers on the ICC consider a roadmap on possible withdrawal from the ICC.  This talk will explore one way the Prosecutor of the ICC might address effectiveness and independence concerns: by declining future UN SC referrals, as well as the tradeoffs involved in that course of action.
Pizza will be served. Follow us on Twitter at:  PARCCatMaxwell, tweet #ConvoInConflict.