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 ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

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

Tag: War

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