Values Protector of International Order

Another, and more substantive, approach to determining the scope of ‘international criminal law’ is to look at the values which are protected by international law’s prohibitions. Under this approach international crimes are considered to be those which are of concern to the international community as a whole or acts which violate a fundamental interest protected by international law.

Early examples include the suppression of the slave trade. The ICC Statute uses the term ‘the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole’ almost as a definition of the core crimes, and recognizes that such crimes ‘threaten the peace, security and well-being of the world’.

It is of course true that those crimes which are regulated or created by international law are of concern to the international community; they are usually ones which threaten international interests or fundamental values.

But there can be a risk in defining international criminal law in this manner, as it implies a level of coherence in the international criminalization process which may not exist. The behavior which is directly or indirectly subject to international law is not easily reducible to abstract formula.

Even if it were, it is not clear that these formulae would be sufficiently determinate to provide a useful guide for the future development of law, although arguments from coherence with respect to the ambit of international criminal law can have an impact on the development of the law (as has occurred, inter alia, in relation to the law of war crimes in non-international armed conflict).

Published under Behavior, Crime, Law



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