After more than two years combatting the Trump administration’s egregious attacks on the International Criminal Court (ICC), it is refreshing to contemplate a possible return to a constructive U.S. policy toward the Court. The American Society of International Law Task Force report is a critical contribution to the discussion.
The task force describes ways in which the ICC’s work intersects with U.S. interests, and it makes valuable recommendations even beyond the ICC for example, on advancing domestic prosecutions of atrocity crimes that the Biden administration hopefully will adopt. But we disagree with recommendations that would make prosecution of U.S. nationals before the Court less likely, even in the absence of genuine national proceedings. This would advance neither justice nor the Court’s success.