Leiden University Student Repository

Hout, Claire van (2023)

To what extent is the International Criminal Court impartial in determining its investigations?

Bachelor thesis | Politicologie (BSc)

This paper has researched the extent of impartiality of the ICC in determining their investigations. The justifications behind the cases of Iraq/UK and Afghanistan/US were explored, to find out how the ICC reached the decision to stop investigating the UK and to leave out the US in their examination. This has been done with a discourse analysis, based on the theoretical distinction of an ethics of conviction and an ethics of responsibility. This analysis has shown that in the case of Iraq, the ICC referred more to the rule of law and legal criteria, where in the case of Afghanistan the discourse included both signs of impartiality, but also signs that practical and political considerations played a role. This thesis thus concludes that the extent of impartiality in the case of Iraq was higher than that in Afghanistan.

International Criminal Court

Afghanistan

Iraq

impartiality

Author

Hout, Claire van

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

Internationale Politiek

Supervisors

Macaj, G.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en