The Crime of Aggression in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

Articles 8 bis, 15 bis and 15 ter are novelties in the Rome Statute, and the Statute lays down a special regime for their prospective entry into force and application, after 1 January 2017. This chapter offers a detailed examination of the new substantive and procedural provisions, in the context of the general part of international criminal law, identifies consequential lacunae—especially, in Article 8 bis, and suggests that the effective power of the International Criminal Court to prosecute individuals for the crime of aggression might be significantly limited by realities of international politics. Although the Kampala amendments on the crime of aggression do have an appreciable potential for having a far-reaching impact upon the maintenance of international peace and security, this potential might, in fact, be limited by the Security Council’s authority to defer an investigation or prosecution. The principle of complementarity—and, hence, a more effective criminalisation of aggression within national legal systems (for details, see Chap. 4 )—should remain increasingly relevant.

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