The war within (cont.)
On Monday, I wrote about the ongoing battles between the International Criminal Court prosecutor and judges. Yesterday’s Guardian featured a broadside against the prosecutor for some recent alleged missteps. The author’s key charge is that the prosecutor has been presupposing the guilt of those indicted: After more than seven years as prosecutor at the international ...
On Monday, I wrote about the ongoing battles between the International Criminal Court prosecutor and judges. Yesterday's Guardian featured a broadside against the prosecutor for some recent alleged missteps. The author's key charge is that the prosecutor has been presupposing the guilt of those indicted:
On Monday, I wrote about the ongoing battles between the International Criminal Court prosecutor and judges. Yesterday’s Guardian featured a broadside against the prosecutor for some recent alleged missteps. The author’s key charge is that the prosecutor has been presupposing the guilt of those indicted:
After more than seven years as prosecutor at the international criminal court – with no convictions, or even completed trials – Luis Moreno-Ocampo still does not understand that it is the job of a prosecutor to bring charges, and the job of a court to decide whether or not the defendant is guilty.
It’s hard not to see in this particular accusation—and in the broader struggle going on within the court—a clash of legal systems. The ICC is a hybrid creation. It’s part American-style adversarial system, in which prosecutors drive cases, and part continental inquisitorial model, in which judges play a much more central role.The irony is that the United States, home of the adversarial system, probably prefers an ICC in which the judges keep the prosecutor in check.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
More from Foreign Policy

Can Russia Get Used to Being China’s Little Brother?
The power dynamic between Beijing and Moscow has switched dramatically.

Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World
It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.

It’s a New Great Game. Again.
Across Central Asia, Russia’s brand is tainted by Ukraine, China’s got challenges, and Washington senses another opening.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing
The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.