The Role of Democracy in International Criminal Justice

The International Criminal Law regime suffers from serious deficiencies that preclude it from achieving its own goals. Limited in scope, enforced with minimal consistency and devoid of consideration for thicker political constructs, it is ill-equipped, in isolation, to bring about lasting peace, stability and greater respect for human rights. This is particularly so in the inherently complex context of internal conflicts. The central claim in this article is that democratic institutions at the level of the nation state are indispensable to the achievement of international criminal justice objectives. Therefore, the potential of international criminal justice institutions will ultimately lie in their ability to enable organic political transformations along democratic lines in post-conflict societies.