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MARJAN AJEVSKI
thorough account of the workings of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and
it has many things to say about how the ICC can be reformed to better carry out
its mandate. However, it is also an account that leaves one with the impression
that one the most noble of pursuits is being carried out by such an ordinary, dare
I say it, “banal” organization.
On the following pages, I will give a short summary of the report, put it in the
context of the field that I research, the study of international courts, and argue
that the “ordinariness” of the ICC is not as much of a failure as it appears, but
something that can allow the ICC to move from the loftiness of its expectations and
discourse and into a more level headed analysis of what makes a well-functioning
international court.
THE REPORT IN BRIEF
The Report is a product of the ICC’s review mechanism, a process that was started
by the ICC’s Assembly of State Parties (ASP) in 2019’ with the overall objective
of “to identify ways to strengthen the [ICC] and the Rome Statute system [...]”
and “enhance their overall functioning, while upholding the key principles
enshrined in the Statute [...]” chiefly, “complementarity, integrity and judicial and
prosecutorial independence.”® The experts produced their report in remarkable
time (10 months) for such an exhaustive and detailed review. Their mandate was
to review the “complex technical issues” arising out of three topics: governance,
judiciary, and investigations and prosecutions.
It is also quite exhaustive. It covers more than 330 pages of findings and
recommendations on such varied issues as the court budget process, performance
indicators, external relations, victim protection, procedural issues regarding
the trial process, issues of employee management, bullying, promotions, sexual
harassment, human resources policy, and many more. It makes a total of 384
recommendations.
The commissioning of the Report was itself a result of the strained relations
between the Court proper and the ASP. As the report noted, “[t]here is widespread
distrust of the ASP within all Organs of the Court. There is a sense in the Court
that States Parties do not recognise [...] that its role is to administer justice, not
7 ICC, Assembly of State Parties, Review of the International Criminal Court and the Rome
Statute System, Resolution ICC-ASP/18/Res.7, 6 December 2019, https://asp.icc-cpi.int/
iccdocs/asp_docs/ASP18/ICC-ASP-18-Res7-ENG.pdf.
Ibid, Annex I, para. 1.
° Ibid, para. 2.
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