Introduction
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the first permanently established international judicial institution created by international treaties to combat impunity for those responsible for serious international crimes. Thus, it is essential to formulate the strengths and weaknesses of the ICC and Victor’s justice and to describe the relationship with the U.S.
Discussion
The advantage of the ICC is that the court is independent and impartial because it has its own system of organs, such as a prosecutor and judges. It should be noted that the ICC was created based on an agreement between states to force a neutral international court (Mendes, 2019). Accordingly, the ICC investigates all crimes by examining evidence by two parties and avoids the victor’s justice. Moreover, the strength of the ICC is that it is an international body that deals with the most serious crimes against humanity. The weakness of the ICC is the need for more resources, which does not enable it to deal with a large number of cases. A budget generally permits only a few prosecutions annually because of their high cost (Mendes, 2019). In addition, the disadvantage is the inability of the ICC to hear a dispute between nations unless each state involved recognizes its jurisdiction. It is essential to observe that the U.S. is not a signatory to the Rome Statute; the state is not a party to the International Criminal Court. However, the U.S. participated in the negotiations that were held in order to develop the basic principles of international adjudication and to create the International Criminal Court (Mendes, 2019). The state is not a member of the ICC because of the vote in 1998 when the U.S. voted against the Rome Statute. This is due to the fact that there is a clause in the Rome Statute to assert the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over American soldiers and politicians who have committed war crimes.
Conclusion
Hence, the ICC is an international judicial body that addresses the worst crimes against humanity under the principles of independence and impartiality. This indicates that the ICC avoids victim justice, although there are problems with the budget and jurisdiction. Nevertheless, the United States is not a party to the ICC because it has not signed the Rome Statute.
Reference
Mendes, E. P. (2019). Peace and justice at the International Criminal Court. Edward Elgar Publishing.