Common Contracts

License: Licence agreement concerning inclusion of doctoral thesis in the Institutional Repository of the University of Leiden

March 17th, 2016

• Filed
  March 17th, 2016

This chapter examines the emergence of specialized domestic courts or chambers for international crimes as one of the most frequently cited effects catalyzed by the principle of complementarity. Because a fundamental “rule” of the complementarity-as- catalyst framework is that national-level actors investigate and prosecute international crimes themselves, ensuring domestic venues for their prosecution is a key preoccupation for civil society state and non-state actors alike. The attendant focus of much complementarity discourse has thus been on the establishment of institutions at the national level that are capable of accommodating such prosecutions. As Human Rights Watch puts it, “The ICC’s authority to act only where national authorities are unable or unwilling … encourages the development of credible and independent judicial systems within national jurisdictions.”507