The International Criminal Court

Abstract

The International Criminal Court (ICC or “the Court”) is the world’s first permanent international court enforcing international criminal law. The ICC has attracted enormous scholarly attention from both lawyers and non-lawyers. Entire journals have been filled with commentaries on its legal framework—primarily the Rome Statute by which it was created—and the case-law developing that framework. But as the breadth of research on the ICC in non-legal disciplines demonstrates, the Court’s relevance goes far beyond the application and development of international criminal law; even without much judicial activity, it produces wide-ranging consequences in the world. Much material on the ICC is subsumed in literature on international criminal tribunals or international criminal law generally. This entry focuses on literature specific to the ICC rather than ICL to include a different set of engagements and questions than substantive criminal law (for instance genocide, modes of liability, or defenses). Separate Oxford Bibliographies entries exist for these topics.