David Luban, University Professor and Professor of Law and Philosophy at Georgetown University, writes in the Boston Review on the possibility of a Palestinian bid to join the International Criminal Court. His article traces the complexities that are involved and the dangers for the ICC itself:
Since the November 28 United Nations General Assembly vote to admit Palestine as a non-member state, there has been speculation about whether Palestine will try to join the International Criminal Court. The attempt would face significant but not insurmountable political and legal hurdles. A successful bid, however, would greatly damage the ICC by pulling it into the deep and dangerous waters of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This threat could be avoided if Israel were induced to join the ICC as well. Though unlikely, this outcome could represent a milestone in an eventual peaceful settlement.
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Unquestionably, any ICC intervention in the Israel-Palestine conflict would place the ICC in grave peril. All options - declining to prosecute, prosecuting one side in the conflict, or prosecuting both sides - would infuriate key ICC members. Prosecutions would shatter the ICC's current détente with [the] United States, suck the oxygen out of the Court's other cases, and introduce incalculably crazy new political spin into a region where calculation is already hard and sane politics is at a premium. Diplomats and politicians would find it convenient to blame the next round of violence on the ICC, however unfairly.
There's much else of interest in the piece.
