This document discusses jurisdiction and admissibility of cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC). It provides details on the ICC's jurisdiction according to temporal, personal, territorial and subject-matter components. Crimes under the ICC's jurisdiction include genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. For a case to be admissible, the domestic court must be unable or unwilling to prosecute. The ICC can only hear a case if states are unable or unwilling to act, or if referred by the UN Security Council. It cannot hear cases that states have decided to prosecute domestically.

1. Jurisdiction and Admissibility
of ICC
by Rittika Dattana
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2. International Criminal Court

World’s first permanent, international judicial body.

Purpose is to provide redress to victims when States
are unable or unwilling to do so.
As of May 2013,122 states have ratified the Court’s

treaty.
Up to date, 20 cases in 8 situations have been

brought before the ICC.
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3. Jurisdiction Of ICC

Jurisdiction is non-retroactive.

Components of Jurisdiction:
•
Temporal (ratione temporis) jurisdiction
-Crimes committed after the statute came into force
•
Personal (ratione personae) jurisdiction
-any person above 18 years can be prosecuted for ICC crime
•
Territorial (ratione loci) jurisdiction
-territory of any state party; or
-territory of non-state party agreed jurisdiction Of ICC by special. agreement
•
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Subject-matter (ratione materiae) jurisdiction

4. Crimes under ICC
The Statute encourages States to exercise their jurisdiction over the ICC

crimes. According to Article 5 of ICC Statute, these are:
o
Genocide
-intent to destroy in whole or part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such
o
Crime against Humanity
-widespread atrocities carried over persons, eg. Rape, forced pregnancy,
deprivation of FR’s, etc.
o
War Crimes
-crimes committed at times of international conflict and at time of internal armed conflict
o
Crime of Aggressions
-not defined and hence not into force
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5. Exercise of Jurisdiction
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6. ICC Case Checklist
Is the crime under ICC jurisdiction?
Is there temporal jurisdiction?
Was the case properly referred?
Is the domestic court unable or unwilling to prosecute?
ICC trial
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Art. 5
Art. 11
Art. 13
Art. 17

7. Admissibility
Exercises Jurisdiction only when:

- States are unable or are unwilling to act and refer to
ICC; or
-United Nations Security Council refers it to act.
The ICC cannot hear a case when a State has
decided to act.
Ne bis in idem


Article 20 allows the ICC to prosecute a person for a
crime referred to in the Statute, even after being tried for
the same act in a national court
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8. Criticism of the ICC

Lack of oversight, checks & balances

Selectivity

Sovereignty concerns

Makes peace process more difficult
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