Reflections on the First Years of the International Criminal Court

Adopted on July 17, 1998, the Rome Statute' of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or "Court") entered into force on July 1, 2002, and since that date, four situations have been referred to the Court, all concerning African countries, namely Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo ("DRC"), Darfur, Sudan and the Central African Republic ("CAR").The past few months have been particularly important for the Court, as they have been notably characterized by significant procedural developments such as the recent arrest of Germain Katanga, a Congolese national, in October 2007.This Idea aims at giving an overview of those developments with a particular focus on the situation in Darfur, Sudan.