International Criminal Law IV: The International Criminal Court

Hofmański, Piotr Józef (2026) International Criminal Law IV: The International Criminal Court. In: International Criminal Law, Humanitarian Law and Refugee Law. Human Rights - Children's Rights; Human Rights and Rule of Law (13; 5). Central European Academic Publishing, Miskolc, pp. 109-148. ISBN 9786157027510

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Abstract

This study does not have the ambition to cover all the issues related to the functioning of the International Criminal Court. It is devoted only to selected elements considered to be the most important in the context of the purpose it is supposed to serve. The focus was therefore on the creation of the first permanent international criminal court, pointing to this event as the result of a long process of evolution. This work is mainly focused on issues related to the scope of the ICC jurisdiction and the mechanisms of its activation. Of course, this approach also forces us to deal with issues related to the principle of complementarity, and the rules of universal jurisdiction. The final part of the work is devoted to the discussion of core crimes under the Rome Statute, and this approach is more informative. The volume of the study does not allow for an in-depth analysis of all the material elements of international crimes, nor the contextual elements. Beyond the scope of consideration are also – as a rule – issues related to the forms of committing crimes provided for in the Rome Statute.Procedural issues were completely omitted; this certainly deserves a separate study, in particular bearing in mind the legacy of the ICC in shaping standards of protection of individual rights. Only marginally, when discussing the process of creating the ICC, was the created system of applied sources of law mentioned, which is of key importance for decoding the rules governing proceedings before the ICC.In the end, three very important blocks of issues were omitted. The first one concerns constitutional issues, i.e. the structure of the Court and the rules of its functioning, the election of elected officials, the relationship of the Court to the UN, the role of the Assembly of State Parties, etc. The second concerns the rights of victims in proceedings before the ICC and their right to reparations. In the latter area, the Rome Statute brought revolutionary and, most importantly, effective solutions. Thirdly, the whole issue of international cooperation, the effectiveness of which is of key importance for the functioning of the entire system of the Rome Statute has remained outside the scope of consideration.

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