With globalism setting the pace for the 21st century, the need to strengthen the rule of law is growing. From this perspective, the creation of the International Criminal Court as the world's first permanent war-crimes tribunal is of historic significance. A treaty establishing the court came into force last month. It is to start functioning next year.
The United States, however, is trying to make itself an exception to the rule; it is pressing other countries to conclude bilateral agreements excluding American soldiers from any chance of prosecution. That amounts to a denial of the ICC. As the world's most powerful nation, the U.S. should demonstrate leadership within the framework of the court, not outside of it.
The ICC, the embodiment of more than 50 years of U.N. debates, is different from the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals held after World War II. Those tribunals were established only temporarily to bring selected war criminals to justice. The international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and others, established under U.N. Security Council resolutions, are also ad hoc bodies. The ICC is designed to solve the problems ascribed to these bodies. Critics of the Tokyo tribunal, for instance, have questioned whether "fairness" prevailed, saying it was a trial of the vanquished by the victor.