Of the many expectations attending the creation of the first permanent International Criminal Court, the greatest has been that the principle of complementarity would catalyse national investigations and prosecutions of conflict-related crimes and lead to the reform of domestic justice systems. Sarah Nouwen explores whether complementarity has had such an effect in two states subject to ICC intervention: Uganda and Sudan. Drawing on extensive empirical research and combining law, legal anthropology and political economy, she unveils several effects and outlines the catalysts for them. However, she also reveals that one widely anticipated effect – an increase in domestic proceedings for conflict-related crimes – has barely occurred. This finding leads to the unravelling of paradoxes that go right to the heart of the functioning of an idealistic Court in a world of real constraints.
• Examines the actual, as opposed to the hypothesised, catalysing effect of the complementarity principle of the ICC, thereby allowing readers to see how complementarity works in practice • Draws on rich empirical material and seven years of research, including interviews with alleged war criminals, incumbent and former ministers and other important figures • Brings together legal, social and political analysis in order to demonstrate the context in which international law plays out and to clarify the law behind the otherwise well-known ICC
Contents
Prologue: in the line of fire; 1. Introduction: complementarity from the line of fire; 2. The Rome Statute: complementarity in its legal context; 3. Uganda: compromising complementarity; 4. Sudan: complementarity in a state of denial; 5. Paradoxes unravelled: weaknesses in complementarity's catalysing effect; 6. Conclusion: complementarity in the line of fire.
Reviews
Advance praise: 'This work gets under the skin of rules and institutions and looks with an acute anthropological eye at their real effects in practice. Under the rubric of complementarity, Sarah Nouwen has had the energy and courage to explore a difficult and variable terrain and the nerve to tell the resulting story. The result is a marvellous début.' James Crawford, Whewell Professor of International Law, University of Cambridge
Advance praise: 'Complementarity is the International Criminal Court's admissibility pivot. Sarah Nouwen breathes life into what was, originally at least, a pleat of law and a fold of text. Nouwen courageously embraces humanity's frustrating ambiguities instead of conveniently overlooking them. Her work is lyrical and rigorous, poetic and poised, raw yet researched, granular but driven. For Nouwen, complementarity has spawned national law but has stymied national proceedings. Complementarity is mercurial - it offers, but it withholds, and then beguiles - and it also generates paradoxes - many of them - which Nouwen identifies and vivifies while, at the same time, she questions the self-evident triumph of international legalism. Much has been written about complementarity, to be sure, but Nouwen's voice is singular, path-breaking, and elegant. Her book is a must-read.' Mark Drumbl, Class of 1975 Alumni Professor of Law, and Director, Transnational Law Institute, Washington and Lee University
Advance praise: 'Sarah Nouwen's work presents a rare combination of a genuine passion to empirically investigate and understand the 'what is really going on' beyond preconceived patterns of effects, and a penetrating, analytic scholarly approach that reveals any easy postures in our thinking about today's international criminal justice.' Immi Tallgren, University of Helsinki
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