From Realism to Legalization: A Rationalist Assessment of the International Criminal Court in the Democratic Republic of Congo
From Realism to Legalization: A Rationalist Assessment of the International Criminal Court in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Rationalist or mainstream theories focus on the causal effects and functional properties of international law. One of the central problems of explaining the effectiveness of the ICC is that not all states can be expected to cooperate with the Office of the Prosecutor. While such uncertainty involves primarily the interests of non-State Parties, it is not entirely clear as to how territorial States Parties will seek to maximize their interests in their dealings with the Court. This chapter addresses this issue by focusing on the relationship between the institutional effectiveness of the ICC and the interests of State Parties. A key issue examined is the maximization of interests of these states vis-à-vis ICC prosecutorial discretion, and the problem that this raises for full cooperation. Employing a legalization framework, the chapter analyzes this issue in the context of the self-referral by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It argues that legalization theory, while limited in certain respects, offers an important analytical framework for examining the parameters or matrix of politicized justice.
Keywords: realism, neo-liberalism, civil war, legalization, Congo, evolution, ICC
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
