THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC) ENFORCEMENT CHALLENGES: THE ARREST WARRANT AGAINST PRESIDENT PUTIN (2023)
Keywords:
International Criminal Court, Rome Statute, Assembly of States Parties, Enforcement Mechanisms, Sovereign Immunity, Realism, Liberal Institutionalism.Abstract
This article examines the enforceability of general principles of international law through the analytical lens of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant issued on 17 March 2023 against Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova in connection with the alleged unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. Drawing on a theoretical framework that interrogates the longstanding debate between realism and liberal institutionalism, the article evaluates whether international law constitutes genuine law in the absence of a centralised enforcement authority. Key issues examined include the principle of sovereign immunity as applied to a sitting head of state, the jurisdictional reach of the Court over nationals of non-party states, and the structural enforcement constraints embedded in the Rome Statute’s cooperative framework. The article draws on documentary analysis of ICC jurisprudence, Security Council dynamics, and empirical evidence of state non-compliance, notably Mongolia’s failure to arrest Putin in September 2024, to demonstrate that enforcement outcomes are governed more by political will than by legal obligation. The study concludes that without meaningful reform of the ICC’s cooperative and sanctioning mechanisms, the Court’s capacity to hold the most powerful state actors accountable will remain structurally compromised.
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