![]() By tracing the discourses through which these contestations transpire, this article highlights some of the themes, strategies, and practices through which the icc’s intervention has been received. It considers these dynamics on two registers: at the geopolitical level (considering the relationships between the icc, the African Union, and the United Nations Security Council) as well as at the domestic level (both state and civil society). This article takes up the case study of the Kenyan situation as a site of political contestation mediated through legal discourse. The icc intervention has produced a number of political effects, including the imbrication of the icc process with electoral politics. Earlier positions have been disavowed and others have changed in the dynamic Kenyan political environment. The International Criminal Court’s intervention in Kenya emerged from a complex and contested political history, with different actors advocating for domestic solutions and others arguing for an international legal process in The Hague. Features of domestic political contests are a key moderator of the effectiveness of international institutions. The ICC's indictments had the greatest effect on support for the most prominent indicted candidate in regions of Kenya where pro-and anti-indictment forces were balanced. The ICC cemented the political alliance of two anticompliance candidates. I demonstrate features of the model using the Kenyan experience with the International Criminal Court. Institutions have a weaker marginal effect when groups are imbalanced. The model predicts that institutions have the greatest ability to induce compliance when the groups have similar values to winning a compliance contest or costs to effort, ex ante. I develop a general model of political contestation over compliance policy in which institutions mobilize both pro-and anticompliance groups. This analysis reveals that the UNGA has become increasingly active in international justice and holds the potential for an enhanced role in addressing the failings of the current UNSC-dominated paradigm governing UN–ICC relations, thereby facilitating States in ‘uniting against impunity’.Ī broad class of theories, applied to a wide array of substantive issues, argues that international institutions facilitate compliance by mobilizing procompliance domestic groups. There is the possibility for the UNGA to engage in dialogue with the ICC through ‘quasi-judicial’ resolutions, in coordinating collective responses to a recalcitrant State and individual perpetrators and also through the possible assumption of a referral power. Meanwhile, the UNGA and its subsidiary organs have exerted meaningful pressure on the UNSC through the creation of commissions of inquiry and country-specific resolutions. The power of the UN Security Council (‘UNSC’) to make a referral to the ICC has been increasingly challenged in recent years, due to the perceived misuse of the veto by permanent members and general failings to enforce international criminal law in the face of documented atrocities. This article evaluates the role of the UN General Assembly (‘UNGA’) and its subsidiary organs in acting as a catalyst for action at the International Criminal Court (‘ICC’). Survey data reveals that they want the court to investigate situations involving major powers. Finally, diplomats have proved tired of political considerations obstructing international justice. Interestingly, scholars and diplomats agree on the court’s fiascos, yet dissent on successes. ![]() Thus, they downplay indirect effects such as positive complementarity. ![]() First, it shows that diplomats conceptualize international justice in terms of ongoing prosecutions and convictions obtained. ![]() This article makes a two-fold contribution to the study of international law and politics. It also asks about negative cases that is, country situations that never made it to The Hague due to political considerations. Based on an online survey of diplomats posted to the UN headquarters, this article determines which country situations under ICC scrutiny respondents regard as successes or failures and, in turn, what parameters underpin their views. This article investigates the stark variation in elite appraisals of the performance of the International Criminal Court ( ICC ).
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