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Cato Policy Analysis No. 311

July 16, 1998

REASONABLE DOUBT

The Case against the Proposed International Criminal Court

by Gary T. Dempsey

Executive Summary

In July 1998 representatives of governments and nongov-

ernmental organizations will conclude a five-week interna-

tional conference in Rome aimed at producing a treaty estab-

lishing the International Criminal Court.  The stated mission

of the proposed ICC is to prosecute persons charged with the

most serious international crimes, such as war crimes, crimes

against humanity, and genocide.  With 116 articles and more

than 200 wording options to be debated, however, the ICC's

draft statute is replete with unresolved issues and alarming

possibilities.

Specifically, the court threatens to diminish America's

sovereignty, produce arbitrary and highly politicized "jus-

tice," and grow into a jurisdictional leviathan.  Already

some supporters of the proposed court want to give it the

authority to prosecute drug trafficking as well as such vague

offenses as "serious threats to the environment" and "commit-

ting outrages on personal dignity."  Even if such expansive

authority is not given to the ICC initially, the potential

for jurisdictional creep is considerable and worrisome.

Moreover, it appears that many of the legal safeguards Ameri-

can citizens enjoy under the U.S. Constitution would be

suspended if they were brought before the court.  Endangered

constitutional protections include the prohibition against

double jeopardy, the right to trial by an impartial jury, and

the right of the accused to confront the witnesses against

him.

For those and other reasons, the U.S. Senate and U.S.

House of Representatives should have sufficient grounds to,

respectively, refuse to ratify and to fund the International

Criminal Court.  If Congress goes ahead with the treaty, it

could open a Pandora's box of legal mischief and political

folly.

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