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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. « 44 »
