The International Criminal Court is Legitimate Enough to Deserve Support

Abstract

In Allen Buchanan’s essay, "The Complex Epistemology of Institutional Legitimacy Assessments," 33 TEMP. INT’L & COMP. L. J. 323, 323 (2019), he suggests that the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is weak – perhaps so weak that it is unworthy of support. This response argues that Buchanan underestimates the ICC’s legitimacy by misconstruing the institution’s chief justifying function and under-valuing the benefits the institution can provide. Unlike domestic courts, the ICC’s main function is not to uphold the rule of law by deterring crimes, but rather to express global norms in the hopes that over time those norms will permeate the fabric of global society. In light of the complexity of this mandate, and the ICC’s relatively limited resources, it is unsurprising that the institution has faced challenges to its legitimacy in its early years. But these are early years, and we argue that the ICC meets at least to the minimum threshold of legitimacy required to justify giving it support.