The Sections of International Law and Criminal Justice cosponsored a roundtable discussion about the permanent International Criminal Court on Saturday, January 9, 1999, at the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The text of a treaty establishing a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) was finalized at a diplomatic conference in Rome in July 1998. Panelists addressed some of the difficult questions associated with this Court. What should be considered a crime at international law within the Court's jurisdiction? Who should be able to initiate the investigation and prosecution of a case? How should jurisdiction in particular cases be distributed between national tribunals and the ICC? What steps should countries have to take to assist the ICC in locating persons, producing evidence, arresting persons, transferring accused persons to the International Court, and carrying out sentences? What procedures should be followed in the conduct of trials and in appeals? Can the United States or its nationals be affected by the operation of the Court, even if the U.S. does not accept the treaty establishing the Court? What factors may contribute to the effective operation of the Court, and what impediments will it face?
The panel members all teach Criminal Law or Criminal Procedure in addition to International Law courses, and have all closely followed the development of the ICC. The panelists included: Leila Wexler of Washington University at St. Louis (substituting for M. Cherif Bassiouni of DePaul University); Christopher L. Blakesley of the Louisiana State University Law Center; Malvina Halberstam of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; Dorean Koenig of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School; and Edward Wise of Wayne State University Law School. John Noyes (California Western) and Ellen Podgor (Georgia State) moderated. The proceedings of the panel will be published in the American Criminal Law Review.