In the first week of April, 2012, after three years of deliberation, the prosecutor for the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo decided not to bring charges against Israel for war crimes in Gaza since 2002. The stated basis for the decision was given as the fact that Palestine "is not a state." The failure of the ICC to take action in this matter has given rise to very loud cries of "foul" by many commentators, particularly in the Developing World. [See the Amnesty International article below. And this photo is from that article.]
For those who seek "justice" in the law, it should be brought to mind that despite the language of whose who wield the law, "justice" may not be perceived as being the intended outcome.
Law is merely a process of Authoritative Control whereby certain community elites establish and maintain a particular public order.
It is wrong to assume that law always works to the good of humanity. Laws in 1940 Germany meant to oppress Jews, laws enforced in 1940 in the southern states within the United States in order to deny African Americans their human dignity and laws administered by colonial powers Africa in 1940 to oppress Africans give evidence to this fact.
The laws established and maintained by the ICC are no different than any other laws, they are meant to create and maintain a certain order within the global community that work to the benefit of certain elites within that community.
In this sense, law is not unlike a gun. Whether it is used for good or ill is determined by who is using it and at whom it is aimed. Like a gun, law, in reality makes no moral judgment; it merely serves those who hold it in their hands. It is not the gun that is tried for the crime of murder, it is the one who pulls the trigger. And so, we must not condemn law as a process, but we must accuse that would use it for ill.
If you wish the laws of the ICC to better serve an egalitarian and humanistic world, then it must be placed in the hands of those would be egalitarian and humanistic in their purpose. And in order to do this, we must begin to think of the law as a process and recognize it as such; because, in order to control something, you must understand it.
