Studies On The Jurisdiction Of The International Criminal Court

In 1988,Rome Diplomatic Conference on International Criminal Court(ICC )was held in Rome, Italia. The Statute of ICC was produced at that conference, which is also called'Rome Statue'. According to the'Rome Statute'of the International Criminal Court, the jurisdiction of the court is the jurisdiction of under certain conditions, particular international crime for the criminal investigation, prosecution, trial and sentencing of the defendant. Since the day it was founded, the issue of the jurisdiction of ICC has become the focus of controversy among the delegates.The first clause of the'Statute'puts forward the Complementary Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in this way'The Court as a permanent body has authority to the most serious crimes at an international level, playing a complementary role to national criminal jurisdictions.'The jurisdiction of criminal cases of a country is one vital part of her legal jurisdictional system, in no exceptions should that not to be admitted and respected. Only in case that the country's legal system is not available or the country is not willing to deal with the specific case, should ICC dip its finger into it.Finally, scholars had an agreement on that ICC has jurisdiction on the following four crimes: Crime of Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, and Crimes of Aggression. The complementary jurisdiction principle must be the fundamental principle of ICC's jurisdiction. This principle has been called by many scholars as'the cornerstone principle of the jurisdiction of ICC.'However,there are some clauses of the'Statute'goes against with Complementary jurisdiction principle, which to a certain extent hurt the sovereignty and independence of the single country. Thus, the effectiveness of ICC will be weakened.This paper is combined with three chapters. The main contents are as follows:Chapter 1: The basic concept of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The historical background of the creation of ICC. The premise of the complementary jurisdiction principle are the following four jurisdictions: jurisdiction ratione temporis, jurisdiction ratione personae, jurisdiction ratione loci, jurisdiction ratione materiae. The characteristics of the jurisdiction of ICC. The four crimes under the jurisdiction of ICC, including: Crimes of Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, and Crimes of Aggression.Chapter 2: Specific analysis of the meaning and characteristics of the principle of complementary jurisdiction. The complementary jurisdiction principle is the fundamental principle of the jurisdiction of ICC. The trigger mechanism of ICC includes these three ways: the state party submits the situation; the Security Council submits the situation; the Prosecutors initiate investigations as well.Chapter 3: The possible changes to the'Roman Statute'to match the complementary jurisdiction principle. Some of the clauses of Rome Statute which go against with the principle of complementary jurisdiction are needed to be amended.