Weighing Judicial Independence Against Judicial Accountability: Do the Scales of the International Criminal Court Balance?

Abstract

Part I of this article briefly considers the concept of accountability as an element of the broader concept of legitimacy in international law. Part II addresses the normative question of whether the ICC should in fact meet standards of accountability. Part III questions whether the ICC meets the appropriate standards of accountability. This article concludes that the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court has managed to strike the correct balance between judicial independence and judicial accountability.

Keywords: International Criminal Court, accountability, independence