The ICC at the centre ofan international criminal justice system: current challenges

Abstract

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has entered into its second decade of operations and has established itself at the centre of an international criminal justice system, comprising also domestic jurisdictions and other international courts and tribunals. However, many challenges continue to face the ICC and, indeed, such challenges are part of its own features and stem from the specificities of international law and relations. In this article, we shall discuss, in light of recent events, four of such challenges: 1) Universality; 2) Complementarity; 3) Cooperation; and 4) the Crime of Aggression. These challenges illustrate how the ICC and international criminal justice inhabit both the cultures of justice and politics and how these two aspects have to be taken into account in order for such challenges to be overcome, so that the mission of a permanent and central instrument for the fight against impunity, that historically started in Rome in 1998, becomes an inherent part of today’s world.