The International Criminal Court (ICC): Jurisdictional basis and status

Abstract

The need for the prosecution of international crimes has long been mooted as far back at the end of World War I. After the conclusion of World War II, the International community was outraged with the atrocities committed by the Nazi and Japanese regimes. Even though it was generally felt that these crimes should be prosecuted, there was no international framework for prosecuting these crimes. On 17 July 1998, a conference of 120 States established the first treaty-based permanent International Criminal Court known as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which sets out its jurisdiction. This article therefore examined the jurisdiction of the ICC and the problems confronting the effective implementation of the Rome Statute as well as its domestication in Nigeria. Thus, this article relied heavily on the Rome Statute and most of the findings/results of this article were based on analysis of the Statute. The article found that even though the Rome Statute is significant for prosecution of international crimes, it has not been able to meet its objectives and therefore more is needed to be done by State parties to ensure that the ICC achieves its objectives.

Keywords: International law, Jurisdiction, Court, Crime, International Criminal Court