The Final Balance Sheet? The International Criminal Court's Challenges and Concessions to the Westphalian Model

This Article examines the organization and operating principles of the International Criminal Court. Many aspects of the Rome Statute challenge fundamental tenets of the structure of international law existing heretofore. No analysis could address all the aspects of this new international institution and the Article seeks to focus attention on some of its major features impacting on State sovereignty--the focus of this Article. The Article explores the structure and competence of the Court and in particular the powers of the prosecutor, general principles underlying the jurisdiction of the Court, the formulation of the complementarity principle in the Court’s Statute, the manner in which cases will come to the Court and be decided and the State cooperation regime. It examines the State cooperation regime governing the conduct of investigations and prosecutions on State territory and the arrest of suspects and their surrender to the Court noting that the Court’s enforcement jurisdiction is paltry, at best, suggesting the unease of States to the idea of a permanent international penal process.