The International Criminal Court - Legitimacy in Counter-Leadership Operations

[AusPTE]

JMM you raise a lot of good points regarding accountability and "due process issues" with the court.

I would agree with you that as it currently stands, the ICC is certainly an imperfect institution, as are most high-level organisations of its calibre, at the outset. These are certainly issues which need to be resolved before the ICC can be trusted to adequately carry out its mandate - that is - the prosecution of mass atrocity crimes.

The point I am trying to make regarding the ICC is that is has great potential for future high-level criminal prosecutions because it acts outside traditional national judicial structures which means it will bear a greater level of legitimacy than national courts ever will (particularly when it comes to prosecuting foreign nationals).

It would be fair to say that the Bush Administration's exploits with US law (Guantanamo and the Military tribunals, "enemy combatants") have not been met with glee from the international community and the US certainly has a legitimacy problem now, which, until addressed will continue to have a negative impact on GWOT and future Western-led operations.

To use the example of the upcoming KSM trial, however fair that trial might be, it will still be viewed by some as a "show trial" simply because it was an "American court" (id est: the AQ oral history will record "the Americans tried and executed the martyr, KSM")

This is where the ICC could be particularly useful. An international court, with international legitimacy which could also dissuade potential martyrdom of some of these highly-influential mass murderers

I agree, it is uncomfortable to think that Western forces could be tried in an international court for crimes against humanity, but if we are acting like professional soldiers in the first place and our national judiciaries are acting responsibly (remember the ICC only acts if national courts are failing to act) this should not be an issue.

It is a real opportunity for a legitimate "global law-enforcer" beyond the heavily-criticised "Team America and the Allies".

If the events of the last ten years have shown us anything it is that multilateral action certainly achieves much more than unilateral action.