Toward an International Criminal Court?

A Council Policy Initiative

July 1, 1999

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International Law

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Overview

Ruth Wedgwood
Anne-Marie Slaughter

Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

John R. Bolton
Kenneth Roth
Alton Frye
Alton Frye

Presidential Senior Fellow Emeritus

Backed by strong international support, the formation of a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) will soon replace the use of ad hoc tribunals such as those for Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The United States, originally a proponent of the ICC treaty negotiated in Rome in 1998, now stands with the small minority opposing the ICC. With the court likely to come into existence, the terms of U.S. participation in the treaty are now a vital question.

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