The local impact of a global court : assessing the impact of the International Criminal Court in situation countries

Wierda, M.I. (2019)

Doctoral Thesis

Twenty years after the coming into force of the Rome Statute, not much has been written on its impact on the country level, neither is there consensus on the goals of the ICC. This thesis seeks to put forward a framework for assessing the impact of the Rome Statute, by measuring four types of impact: systemic effect on domestic legal systems; transformative effect on peace processes (such as through including the rights of victims); reparative effect for victims; and a demonstration effect on affected populations. The thesis measures these effects mainly in four countries: Afghanistan, Colombia, Libya and Uganda. Sources include (legal) literature, policy papers, news stories and interviews. The thesis concludes that while there is some normative impact of the Rome Statute and the ICC, in the form of systemic and transformative effect, it is undermined by lack of societal impact, mainly due to negative perceptions among affected population (demonstration effect) and lack of impact on victims (reparative effect). The thesis also makes a preliminary conclusion that the impact of the Court may have been the most in the country where it was needed the least (Colombia, which has a fairly robust legal system).

• ICC
• Rome Statute
• Impact
• Complementarity
• Peace negotiations
• Victims
• Legitimacy
• Perceptions

• All authors: Wierda, M.I.
• Supervisor: Stahn, C.; Herik, L.J. van den
• Committee: Schabas, W.A.; Ubink, J.M.; Pinzauti, G.; Wilt, H.G. van der; Kersten, M.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Institute of Public Law, Faculty of Law, Leiden University
• Date: 2019-01-09