• fulcrummed@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    The USA doesn’t recognise the ICC because they do not want their citizens to be subjected to it. There are quotes from senior officials and diplomats essentially saying that the USA agrees with the concept of the ICC but only for lawless countries where people who violate international law are unlikely to be held to account. Essentially it is a humdinger of an example of “rules for thee but not for me” creedo. The US hides behind its UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) as a panacea excusing it from subjecting itself to the rules it wants to enforce on the rest of the world. The argument is that the UCMJ is sufficient to enforce accountability and international law, and that the ICC is superfluous. It’s a tenuous argument at best and ultimately shelters the USDF from international accountability for their actions.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      There are legitimate concerns about American participation in the ICC:

      • the US Constitution guarantees jury trials for major offenses, and the ICC doesn’t use them

      • the US Constitution states that the US Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over all other courts, and there is no room for an international court to fit in that structure

      • US courts claim jurisdiction over US citizens who commit crimes on US soil, and there is no mechanism to insert the ICC into that.

      So it’s not just that the US doesn’t want to play nice, there are things in the structure of the ICC that violate the US Constitution. Those contradictions would have to be resolved before the US can join, either by changing the ICC or changing the US Constitution.

      • ctrl_alt_esc@lemmy.ml
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        3 days ago

        I’m pretty sure that’s the same in most other countries, at the very least the highest court jurisdiction, yet somehow they were able to still be part of the ICC