The jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is dictated by its founding treaty, the Rome Statute, not by customary international law.
Customary international law refers to regulations that are not set by agreements or treaties. It arises from state practice and beliefs about what constitutes violations of the law.
During a press briefing on March 27 however, reelectionist Sen. Imee Marcos claimed that while International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is customary law, the ICC’s jurisdiction is not.
IHL, which refers to the set of rules on war crimes committed during times of international armed conflict, has no connection to the regulation of the ICC’s jurisdiction.
Although IHL is considered customary under international law, it is not international law that dictates the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Article 5 of the Rome Statute states that the court’s jurisdiction covers “the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole.”
Marcos also argued that the ICC’s jurisdiction applies only to states party to the Rome Statute.
While the Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute effective 2019, the ICC retains jurisdiction over crimes committed while the country was a member.
A 2021 ICC ruling affirmed its authority over alleged crimes that occurred between 2011 and 2019 when the Philippines was still a state party.
Read the full story on FactRakers.com.