The Road to Reconciliation? Optimizing the Legitimacy and Efficacy of the International Criminal Court within the African Union and Africa
The Road to Reconciliation? Optimizing the Legitimacy and Efficacy of the International Criminal Court within the African Union and Africa explores three main deficit areas of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) legitimacy namely its institutional legitimacy, jurisdictional legitimacy and cultural legitimacy. Objectively viewed from beginning to end this book weaves in aspects of culture as viewed from an African perspective, which are at odds with international criminal law and in effect highlights the current problems that African cultural paradigms presents at the level of the ICC. It focuses on the ways in which the International Criminal Court can develop a better understanding of Africa, and advocates for a practical and balanced approach to implementing or enforcing international criminal justice in view of the tensions that continue to persist between the International Criminal Court and the African Union. Novel issues of International criminal law such as culture, traditional justice mechanisms versus the formal justice of the International Criminal Court, including the latters competing institutional mandates are encapsulated and explored in detail in this book. The clash of legitimacy between the ICC and African Union is highlighted through the use of the first longitudinal study into the ICC’s legitimacy in Africa. This study is innovative because it ventures into the legal domain by using and relying on social science insights which provides more clarity into the decision making of the African Union, International Criminal Court and the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP). An in depth analysis of international case law with the help of anthropological insights will provide readers and international scholars with much needed clarity into the cultural conundrums currently facing the ICC and other international courts and tribunals. The Road to Reconciliation? Optimizing the Legitimacy and Efficacy of the International Criminal Court within the African Union and Africa optimizes the international legal perspective through innovative insights and provides scholars, policymakers, governments, courts of law and international institutions with new insights to manage and reimagine international criminal law.
Short Bio
Dr. Ingrid Roestenburg-Morgan is a Senior Research Fellow at the IJR. She is both a legal practitioner and scholar and is specialized in international human rights, international criminal law and transitional justice. She has previously held positions at the International Criminal Court (ICC), United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugosalvia (UN-ICTY) and ActionAid International.
