Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Table of Cases
- Table of Treaties and other International Instruments
- Table of Abbreviations
- PART A INTRODUCTION
- PART B PROSECUTIONS IN NATIONAL COURTS
- PART C INTERNATIONAL PROSECUTIONS
- 6 The History of International Criminal Prosecutions: Nuremberg and Tokyo
- 7 The ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals
- 8 The International Criminal Court
- 9 Other Courts with International Elements
- PART D SUBSTANTIVE LAW OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMES
- PART E PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF INTERNATIONAL PROSECUTIONS
- PART F RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SYSTEMS
- Index
- References
8 - The International Criminal Court
Nuremberg and Tokyo
from PART C - INTERNATIONAL PROSECUTIONS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Table of Cases
- Table of Treaties and other International Instruments
- Table of Abbreviations
- PART A INTRODUCTION
- PART B PROSECUTIONS IN NATIONAL COURTS
- PART C INTERNATIONAL PROSECUTIONS
- 6 The History of International Criminal Prosecutions: Nuremberg and Tokyo
- 7 The ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals
- 8 The International Criminal Court
- 9 Other Courts with International Elements
- PART D SUBSTANTIVE LAW OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMES
- PART E PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES OF INTERNATIONAL PROSECUTIONS
- PART F RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SYSTEMS
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
The creation of a permanent international criminal court with potentially worldwide jurisdiction is one of the most important developments in international criminal law. The Statute of the International Criminal Court has not only established a new judicial institution to investigate and try international offences, but has also set out a new code of international criminal law. This chapter describes the steps leading to the establishment of the ICC, its principal features, early developments and some of the legal and political responses to the Court; it also attempts a brief assessment of the Court's first years, while recognizing that its practice is still at a very early stage.
The creation of the ICC
In spite of the so-called Nuremberg Promise that the trials after the Second World War would set a precedent for others, there was no early successor to the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals to prosecute international crimes at the international level. There had been earlier proposals for a permanent international criminal court and a proposal was discussed during the negotiations on the 1948 Genocide Convention, but the Convention as agreed looks only to the possibility of such a court in the future. Article VI provides that persons charged with genocide are to be tried by a court in the territory where the act was committed or ‘by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction’.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- An Introduction to International Criminal Law and Procedure , pp. 144 - 180Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010