Inherent imperialism: understanding the legal roots of anti-imperialist criticism of the International Criminal Court

Cowell, Frederick (2017) Inherent imperialism: understanding the legal roots of anti-imperialist criticism of the International Criminal Court. Journal of International Criminal Justice 15 (4), pp. 667-687. ISSN 1478-1387.

Abstract

Since 2008 the International Criminal Court has been subject to criticism for being somehow imperialist and some criticism of the Court has pursued a distinctly anti-imperialist narrative. Whilst such criticism is often motivated by political considerations, this article examines whether such narrative can be to a certain extent due to some provisions of the Rome Statute itself, rather than the contingent choices made by Court organs. This involves analysing the law itself for traces of what this article terms ‘inherent imperialism’. This is where the text of an instrument implicitly envisages an unequal or hierarchical legal structure. If some of the Rome Statute’s features can be considered inherently imperialist, this could provide a partial justification for some of the political attacks on the Court’s choices. This article, by providing a theoretical framework, which interprets claims that the law is imperialist, aims to put the anti-imperialist attacks on the Court in perspective.

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