Beyond the state: the future of international criminal law.

This work examines the development of international criminal law, and by default the International Criminal Court, towards the protection of the individual. The link to State planning, policy or officialdom appears to be waning and the discourse has shifted from conceptual discussions of the Court’s jurisdiction to the best means of protecting individuals. This has naturally involved the cross-pollination of international criminal law by the associated disciplines of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. This has entailed a shift towards prosecuting those who are guilty of mass atrocities regardless of whether they are State officials, with the majority of the defendants before the Court having an affiliation to a rebel group of non-state actors. There are also further investigations in respect of situations which would not traditionally be identified as armed conflicts. Thus international criminal law retains its appeal for academics and further ensconces its place in public international law through the sharing of concepts with international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and it reciprocates through providing a forum for the prosecution of the most serious abuses of individual dignity.