Prosecutor Discretion of International Criminal Court in Interaction with Security Council

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology, Department of Law, Faculty of Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran

2 Master of Criminal Law and Criminology, Department of Law, Faculty of Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran

Abstract

 International Criminal Court is a new institution, acting as the most important achievement of the international community in pursuing justice and the Rule of Law, with the aim to combat impunity and promoting accountability among governments. Since the ratification of the Rome Statute, the discretionary power of the prosecutor has produced diverse controversies regarding its essence, existence, and necessity. There is no specific categorization provided on the issue yet, but through contemplating on the present literature, three different perspectives can be identified; first, theorists who believe that, due to structural characteristics of the international institutions and instruments, the Prosecutor has no discretion. Second, those who believe that the Rome Statute grants the prosecutor a great deal of discretionary power. And third, who keep a moderate position. All these discussions mainly focus on the position of the prosecutor as an independent actor in pursuing international criminal convicts, whose independence is threatened by different factors. So we discuss that to keep and strengthen his independent position, besides making some amendments in the Statute regarding clarification of the discretionary power, there is a demanding need to adjust the relationship between ICC and the Security Council of the United Nations.

Keywords

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics