The International Criminal Court and positive complementarity : the impact of the ICC's admissibility law and practice on domestic jurisdictions

Abstract

This thesis examines the effect of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on national criminal justice practices for core international crimes. It considers that the complementarity system of the ICC is firmly based upon the issues of admissibility established under Article 17 of the Rome Statute and that positive complementarity practices should remain coherent with and based upon that system. As such, the thesis is constructed to systematically analyse the legal requirements of 'admissibility-proof' criminal justice at the national level according to the law and early practices of the ICC. Through analysis of the applicable sources of law available to the ICC, including its emerging jurisprudence on admissibility, the thesis demonstrates that the ICC provides much greater latitude to national criminal jurisdictions than has previously been accepted and that this profoundly affects the concept of positive complementarity, including its legal foundation, its definition as well as its implementation, through policy and practice. Through analysis of each of the issues of admissibility the thesis proves that the emphasis on legal reform of substantive and procedural criminal law is over-emphasised to the negligence of several other factors. These factors include quantitative restrictions, shaped by the objects of reference of the ICC's own investigations and the ICC's case selection criteria. Turning to the indicators of willingness and ability, the thesis establishes that the early practice of the ICC has demonstrated that the complementarity system functions within a plural legal order that does not require States to exercise their criminal jurisdiction as a form of mimicry of the ICC, but largely according to the national laws and practices in place at the time. Notwithstanding this, the thesis argues that legal reform may be advisable to ensure the removal the omissions or procedural bars that could render a case admissible to the ICC.