Objectives of International Criminal Law and Jurisdiction of ICC

Although roots of criminal prosecutions are traced back in the 17th and 18th centuries, but newly emerged discipline of international law namely international criminal law gained its scope after adoption of Rome Statute. However, statute has not yet been universally accepted and various discrepancies have been raised by various states regarding the Jurisdiction and applicable procedure of International Criminal Court (ICC). Prior to the establishment of ICC, initially various international tribunals were established for the prosecutions of perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression, particularly after World War II. However, the prosecutions were subjected to serious criticism not only by the states representing the accused persons rather by the prosecuting states as well, on the grounds that all the prosecutions were partial in nature and even the same crimes were committed by the prosecuting states but not a single individual was subjected to prosecutions from within the prosecuting states. Thereafter, instances have been reported of individual prosecutions till the end of the Twentieth century when again certain individuals including the heads of states were prosecuted for their alleged crimes, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. All these events and previous prosecutions resulted in establishment of ICC, but the statute has not yet been ratified by most of the states on a number of reasons and the most relevant of them is the jurisdiction of the court. Although, all the concepts and types of jurisdiction are not controversial but most of the concerns have been shown regarding the universal jurisdiction of ICC and all the related concepts which provide the action of a state outside the jurisdiction of that state.