Research and development in criminal law and criminology

Research and development in criminal law and criminology

A Tripartite Analysis of the Challenges of Arresting the Accused at the International Criminal Court: From Executive Deadlocks to Legal and Judicial Conflicts

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Khadijeh shirvani 1
Ali Hamidavi 2
Ali sadeghi nejad 2
1 Assistant Professor and Faculty Member, Damghan University, Damghan, Iran.
2 Master's degree in Criminal Law and Criminology, Damghan, Iran
10.22034/jclc.2026.2088743.1341
Abstract
Ensuring international criminal justice and effectively combating impunity depends, above all, on the physical element of arrest and the appearance of the accused before judicial institutions. However, the process of arresting and transferring accused persons to the International Criminal Court, despite the legal protection provided by the Rome Statute, has become one of the most ambiguous and complex legal and political challenges of the 21st century. Although the Rome Statute has drawn up a precise criminalization of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression, in practice, the execution of arrest warrants faces serious structural deadlocks.The present study, with the aim of analyzing these impasses, seeks to answer the central question: what is the three-fold model that explains the fundamental challenges of the Court in the process of arresting the accused, and how do these obstacles undermine the institutional effectiveness of the Court? This article, adopting a descriptive and analytical method and relying on library and legal documents, dissects the existing obstacles at three separate levels. First, the implementation challenges, which are rooted in the lack of an independent police arm for the Court and its absolute dependence on the goodwill and political cooperation of member states. A study of the cases of Omar al-Bashir and Joseph Kenney shows that the dominance of national interests over international obligations has made the Court incapable of realizing coercive power.Second, legal challenges, which mainly concern the conflict between obligations arising from multilateral conventions, diplomatic immunities and the provisions of the Statute, examining the cases of Muammar Gaddafi and the situation in Kenya, reveal that interpretative ambiguities on the issue of sovereign immunities and voluntary referrals have become a tool for procedural abuses by states. Third, judicial challenges, which concern interpretative ambiguities, procedural obstacles in issuing arrest warrants and the conflict between the inherent jurisdiction of the Court and the traditional rules of public international law, especially Article 98, the cases of Vladimir Putin, Gumbo and Dominic Ngon, reveal the complex dimensions of these conflicts and the paradoxes of substantive justice.The research findings show that the Court is facing a crisis of effectiveness in its transition from symbolic justice to effective justice, and its justice is influenced by geopolitical and post-colonial contexts. Finally, the article concludes that overcoming this impasse requires a serious review of cooperation mechanisms, the creation of international specialized units, and a reduction in the selective power of states in order to establish the legitimacy of the Court in victim societies.

Highlights

فارسی

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انگلیسی

 

1. Akande, D. (2021). The ICC and Immunities under International Law. Journal of International Criminal Justice, 19, 245–268.

2. Barnes, G. P. (2011). The international criminal court’s ineffective enforcement mechanisms: The indictment of President Omar Al Bashir. Fordham International Law Journal, 34, 1584.

3. Birkeland, T. K. (2008). Sanctioning of International Criminal Court, the United Nations Security Council, and the Case of Northern Uganda. American University.

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Keywords
Apprehension of suspects
Prosecution of international crimes
State non-cooperation
Immunity of state officials
Enforcement of international judgments
Judicial cooperation
Subjects
 
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Research and development in criminal law and criminology

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 01 June 2026