Book Review: The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
| Author | Emily Haslam |
| Date | 01 January 2004 |
| DOI | 10.1350/jcla.68.1.85.25841 |
| Published date | 01 January 2004 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK REVIEW
Antonio Cassese, Paola Gaeta and John R. W. D. Jones
(eds), The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) vol. I cxl + 1048
pp.; vol. II xvi + 2,018 pp.; materials 184 pp.; £225 hbk
The coming into force of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal
Court (ICC) in 2002 marks a major stage in the post-Cold War in-
stitutionalisation of international criminal justice which raises funda-
mental jurisprudential and practical issues in international law. Hence,
this two-volume commentary on the Rome Statute is a welcome and
timely addition to the existing literature.
Although intended as a commentary on the Rome Statute, the editors
profess not just to produce an article-by-article examination of the
convention. Instead, they seek to use the Rome Statute as a springboard
from which to re-evaluate substantive and procedural international
criminal law more broadly, including the contributions made by the
Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals, the ad hoc UN tribunals and national
proceedings. With this aim in mind, the collection explores the Rome
Statute thematically with a view to answering a number of crucial
questions, central to which is whether the Rome Statute codifies or
develops international law and whether it is a workable device to
achieve international criminal justice (p. v).
In order to achieve these aims the editors have divided the material in
the first volume into four sections. These examine the historical back-
ground to the Rome Statute, the structure of the ICC, jurisdiction, and
general principles of international criminal law. The second volume
contains 10 sections. These are the ICC in general, international law,
international criminal proceedings, international cooperation and judi-
cial assistance, enforcement, application and impact of the Rome Stat-
ute, final analysis and suggestions. The final volume of materials
contains the text of the Rome Statute, the Rules of Procedure and
Evidence, and the Elements of Crimes.
It is impossible to do justice to the wealth of material contained within
each section in this short review. The unique Rome and post-Rome
negotiating processes are given considerable attention in a number of
essays (Kirsch and Robinson, Kirsch and Oosterveld, and Pace and
Schense) and procedural and substantive issues arising out of the Stat-
ute are examined in detail in the essays that follow. Contributors shed
light on some of the long-running disputes in international law, for
example, the problem of aggression (Gaja), and explore some of the
more recent problems to which international criminal practice has given
rise, such as jurisdictional conflicts with truth commissions (Dugard)
and mistake (Eser). Particularly noteworthy is the consideration given
to the protection and the role and status of victims in two essays (Jones
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