America Sanctions the International Criminal Court Itself
Marco Rubio has announced sanctions on the court as an institution rather than on individual judges, blocking its property under American jurisdiction and barring United States companies and citizens from dealing with it. “Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC,” he said, calling it a “rogue court”. Britain and seven allies have publicly disagreed.
The sequence of the day is worth setting out plainly, and then leaving alone. At about eleven this morning the Nobel committee gave the Peace Prize to Navi Pillay, a former judge of this court, and its chair said the award was “definitely a message to those who are attacking, undermin[ing] the international system”. Ms Pillay, before any of what followed, said international law was “under significant political attack… particularly visible with the attacks on the International Criminal Court”. The sanctions were announced some five hours later. Nobody in the administration has drawn a connection, and Donald Trump’s only response to the prize was to repost someone else’s criticism of it. Professor William Schabas of Middlesex University is willing to say it out loud as his own reading: “There’s often a political message lurking behind the award of the Nobel Peace Prize and I think this year is no exception.” Mr Rubio vowed to dismantle the court “brick by brick” if necessary, citing its Afghanistan investigation and its warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, and called on allied signatories to “rein in” it. The Treasury is issuing licences exempting maintenance, technology and pension plans for a period one outlet puts at 180 days. The court’s president Tomoko Akane says it “will continue to fully discharge its mandate”; its deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan says the measures are “intended to undermine the rule of law internationally”. Nine of eighteen judges were already designated.