II. Implementation of the Criminal Court Statute in England and Wales

TLDR: The UK ratified the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 4 October 2001, fulfilling its aim of being amongst the first sixty States to do so as mentioned in this paper, and the Act has two major purposes, to ensure that the UK is able to co-operate fully with the ICC and to enact into domestic law the substantive offences the ICC may assert jurisdiction over when it comes into being.

Abstract: Although a few States ratified the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court1 soon after it was promulgated, the UK decided to prepare and pass implementing legislation prior to submitting its ratification. In England and Wales (and Northern Ireland),2 the ICC Statute is implemented by the International Criminal Court Act 2001,3 which came fully into force on 1 September 2001.4 The UK ratified the ICC Statute on 4 October 2001, fulfilling its aim of being amongst the first sixty States to do so.5 The Act has two major purposes, to ensure that the UK is able to co-operate fully with the International Criminal Court (ICC), and to enact into domestic law the substantive offences the ICC may assert jurisdiction over when it comes into being.6 It is the purpose of this note to introduce the Act and point to some interesting issues that may arise in the future.