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2 Transnat'l Crim. L. Rev. 1 (2023)

handle is hein.journals/tnslcllw2 and id is 1 raw text is: 

Transnational Criminal Law Review (2023) 2(1): 1-4


SYMPOSIUM         ON THE PROPOSAL TO CREATE AN INTERNATIONAL
ANTI-CORRUPTION COURT

                                    INTRODUCTION

                                        Cecily Rose*


The international prosecution of transnational crimes, such as corruption, has long sparked the
interest of scholars.1 Academic debate about international prosecutions has been fueled in part
by the omission  of transnational crimes from the Rome  Statute of the International Criminal
Court (ICC), which  covers only  the 'core crimes' of genocide, crimes against humanity, war
crimes,  and the  crime  of aggression.2 Although   the transnational phenomenon of drug
trafficking prompted the revival of the subject of an international criminal court within the
United Nations  General Assembly   in the late 1980s, drug trafficking and other transnational
crimes were ultimately omitted from the Rome   Statute.
       As  a consequence, the investigation and prosecution of transnational crimes remain the
sole prerogative  of domestic  jurisdictions. Most  transnational crimes  simply  cannot  be
'refrained' as one of the core crimes over which the ICC has jurisdiction, and the prospect of
amending  the Rome   Statute to include transnational crimes seems dim. While a wide range of
transnational crimes were included  in the 2014 Malabo  Protocol for the establishment of an
African Court  of Justice and Human  and Peoples' Rights, the protocol is widely regarded as
very unlikely to come  into force in the foreseeable future.3 Moreover, the many problematic
provisions of the  Malabo  Protocol  illustrate the perils involved in drafting a constitutive
instrument without sufficient debate among not only negotiators, but also scholars.4
       The  proposal  to create an  international anti-corruption court (IACC),  which  first
emerged  nearly a decade  ago, has given scholars new  reasons to consider how  states might
create an international court with the power  to try transnational crimes. This proposal was
initially put forward in 2014 by a US  district court judge, Mark Wolf, who   has since been
revising and refining it.5 The proposal took time to gain traction, but in recent years it appears


*  Associate Professor, Leiden Law School, The Netherlands.
1  See eg, Robert J. Currie and Jacob Leon, 'COPLA: A Transnational Criminal Court for Latin America and the
   Caribbean' (2019) 88 Nordic Journal of International Law 587; Mikkel Jarle Christensen, 'Crafting and
   Promoting International Crimes: A Controversy among Professionals of Core-Crimes and Anti-Corruption'
   (2017) 30 Leiden Journal of International Law 501; Harmen van der Wilt, 'Slavery Prosecutions in
   International Jurisdictions' (2016) 14 Journal of International Criminal Justice 269; Neil Boister, 'International
   Tribunals for Transnational Crimes: Towards a Transnational Criminal Court?' (2012) 23 Criminal Law Forum
   295; Neil Boister, 'Treaty Crimes, International Criminal Court?' (2009) New Criminal Law Review 341; Sonja
   Staff, 'Extraordinary Crimes at Ordinary Times: International Justice Beyond Crisis Situations' (2007) 1010
   Northwestern University Law Review 1257; Andreas Schloenhardt, 'Transnational Organised Crime and the
   International Court: Towards Global Criminal Justice' (2005) 24 University of Queensland Law Journal 93.
2  Patrick Robinson, 'The Missing Crimes' in Antonio Cassese et al (ed) The Rome Statute of the International
   Criminal Court: A Commentary, Vol. I (OUP 2002).
3  African Union, Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and
   Human Rights.
4  See generally Charles C. Jalloh, Kamari M. Clarke, and Vincent O. Nmehielle, The African Court of Justice
   and Human Rights and Peoples' Rights in Context: Development and Challenges (CUP 2019).
5  Mark L. Wolf, Richard Goldstone, and Robert I. Rotberg, 'The Progressing Proposal for An International Anti-
   Corruption Court', American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2023); Mark L. Wolf, 'The World Needs an
   International Anti-Corruption Court' (2018) 147 Daedalus 144; Mark L. Wolf, 'The Case for an International
   Anti-Corruption Court: Executive Summary', Brookings (2014). Mark Wolf's proposal was preceded by a
   proposal put forth by an academic: Martine Boersma, Corruption: A Violation of Human Rights and a Crime
   under International Law? (Intersentia 2012).


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OThe Authors 2023

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