Vanderbilt Discussion on Whether the ICC Threatens Treaty Regimes
On Tuesday 5 April 2016, Prof. Carsten Stahn spoke at Vanderbilt University to discuss a forthcoming article by Prof. Mike Newton in the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.
Newton argues that the exercise of ICC jurisdiction in situations such as Afghanistan or Palestine threatens pre-existing treaty arrangements under Status of forces agreements or the Oslo accords. In his reply, Stahn made the point that that ICC jurisdiction is not merely derived from delegated State authority, but grounded in
a broader entitlement of states and the international legal community under international law. While it might be politically sensitive for the ICC to exercise jurisdiction over nationals of non-States Parties in contexts such as Afghanistan or Palestine, such action was not be precluded by the ICC statutory regime. Stahn showed that the Rome Statute treats conflicts with prior bilateral treaty arrangements as an enforcement, rather than a jurisdictional problem, and that it contains multiple safeguards to address concerns relating to the exercise of ICC jurisdiction. The panel included Prof. Roger O’Keefe (UCL), as well as Prof. Mike Newton and Prof Ingrid Wuerth from Vanderbilt University.