Question analysis and assessment

International Criminal Court has not handled a lot of cases but the ones they have dealt with have been big ones. The assignment being completed within this report asks the author of this response to summarize whether the International Court is handling and discharging its duties properly per its charter and the other question asks the author to provide a sample case/situation and what the outcome of that case was.

Charter Compliance

The basic charter of the International Criminal Court is pretty basic and to the point. The one main kvetch the author of this paper would offer is that one a criminal proceeding is delegated to an international body like the United Nations (which can refer cases to the court) or anything else like it, the bureaucratic morass that can ensue is ridiculous but the political games that can ensue are even crazier. While not applicable to the criminal court, a good example of how a singular action can be taken entirely differently by two major members of the United Nations Security Council was the proposed placement of a missile defense shield in parts of Europe that are geographically close to Iran. Russia cried foul and asserted that they would not allow for such a happenstance and would aim missiles at certain nations because they deemed the missile shield a backdoor way of neutralizing their nuclear arsenal as a piece of leverage in international affairs, even if it begs the question while a civilized nation would take such a warmongering stance against a supposed ally.

In short, international events and what leads to them can vary quite a bit and this can lead to a firestorm of very bad things when these matters are attempted to be charged on an international level rather that limiting it to where the events occurred and/or the aggrieved party. For example, the United States would probably prefer to capture and otherwise deal with the perpetrators of 9/11 even if the home nations and the home bases of the people who started the 9/11 plot are mostly not in the United States, or at least were not at all times during the course of the planning and execution.

Even so, there are events so wide-ranging and all-affecting that an international handling of the case is really for the best. A great example of this would be the aftermath of World War II, which affected (or was caused by) most of Europe, the United States, the U.S.S.R. (now Russia and eastern Europe), Japan and many other corners of the world. Allowing any one nation (or even a small group of nations) to manage the aftermath of such as seismic and major event in world history would be impossible and would no doubt be disputed by a lot of nations excluded from the process. Even so, there is just entirely too much chance of a nation wanting to take a stance different than the collective (or at least the majority) and the sometimes childish lengths that some countries will go to as a means to get their way or at least be the center of attention is distracting and largely pointless.

Another factor is that many countries (and/or their peoples) have a wide-spread hatred for the West (e.g. The United States, western Europe, etc.) and this will necessarily and commonly cause them to take positions that cannot and/or should not be justified or sought after for any other reason. Israel is a target of this as well. Many people, for example, want a Palestinian state and do not want new Jewish settlements built, ignoring the fact that "Palestine" does not exist nor does a Palestinian state…it's still Israel.

Example Case

The one case on the ICC website, and it's a recent one, that leaps out to the author of this paper is the one regarding Libya. One of the people sought after from that situation was Moammar Qadafi. Of course, efforts to apprehend him have ceased given his very violent and public death that occurred during the Libyan uprising that happened circa 2011. It is perhaps best that the efforts to try him, even after his death, were abandoned because it would have been a circus that many would demand include finding out who killed him and in what manner, which ignores the fact that this will likely never be known for sure and Qadafi is surely someone who had it coming and for a litany of reasons, not unlike Saddam Hussein for gassing the Kurds (and many other deaths) and other tyrants.