LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

The Lasting Legacy of Double Standards: The International Criminal Court and the UN Security Council Referral Mechanism

Photo from wikipedia

Common narratives in international criminal law give the impression that the arc of international criminal law is long but bends towards justice. In this article, I wish to challenge this… Click to show full abstract

Common narratives in international criminal law give the impression that the arc of international criminal law is long but bends towards justice. In this article, I wish to challenge this and show that we actually see more of the same. I adopt a consequentialist approach for analysing these issues: what are the real outcomes of the structural changes that happened via the involvement of the UN Security Council (unsc) and are they driven more by power or principle? Through case studies of the two existing referrals of the situations of Darfur and Libya I challenge the progress narrative often implied in international criminal law discourse. I show that through the institutional structure and limitations in practice, the unsc referral mechanism operates as a continuation of double standards by other means and that power influences accountability much more than principle even without direct unsc intervention.

Keywords: security council; double standards; international criminal; criminal law; referral mechanism

Journal Title: International Criminal Law Review
Year Published: 2020

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.