The Politics of International Criminal Law

Book excerpt: The Politics of International Criminal Law is an interdisciplinary collection of original research that examines the often noted but understudied political dimensions of International Criminal Law (ICL). As a nascent legal regime that seeks to regulate the longstanding power of states to manage war and crime, ICL faces challenges to its legitimacy, including disagreement over its aims and effectiveness; inequality in the work of its institutions; and opposition from dominant countries. The editors bring together eleven senior and emerging scholars and practitioners from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and North America to analyse these challenges from an illuminating range of theoretical and empirical perspectives. Taken together, the collection ultimately helps advance our understanding of the particularly charged relationship between law and politics in ICL.