Description
In his landmark book “Rough Justice: The International Criminal Court in a World of Power Politics”, David Bosco argues that the first decade of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is characterized by an interactive process of mutual accommodation between the court’s Prosecutor and the world’s most powerful states. Almost ten years since the publication of David Bosco’s book, this paper aims to map the ICC’s prosecutorial behaviour in recent years to understand if the court has remained constrained by major power privilege or if it became bolder with time. Particular emphasis will be given to the Prosecutor’s decisions to close the preliminary examinations in Colombia and Guinea, to focus the ICC’s investigative efforts in Afghanistan on the crimes allegedly committed by the Taliban and the Islamic State, and to open an investigation into the situation in Ukraine. Does the ICC continue to operate in a largely conciliatory framework, very cautious and deferential to power politics? And if so, how is the ICC contributing to the production and reproduction of hegemonic discourses? Is the court hijacking the agency and voice of the subjects it claims to empower?
