Abstract
This chapter examines the increasing potential of international criminal law to advance hegemonic claims over the meaning of concepts relevant beyond its own field. By building on the Gramscian conceptualisation of hegemony and the role of law therein, I suggest that international criminal law advances a certain understanding of violence, that obscures and normalises types of violence that are beyond its gaze. The power of international criminal law to advance strong claims is, in turn, based on its asserted relevance for the causes of global justice, lasting peace and punishing the most serious crimes.
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Notes
- 1.
Weigend 2008, p. 936.
- 2.
- 3.
Rajkovic 2020, p. 65.
- 4.
Ibid., p. 72.
- 5.
I use the term ‘international criminal law stricto sensu’ to refer to the law pertaining to the four core crimes, since the scope of international criminal law is subject to varying interpretations in the scholarship, and I adhere to a broad definition of international criminal law whereby the definition on an international crime is not limited to the core crimes—the term international criminal law stricto sensu, therefore, is helpful in referring to the part of international criminal law related to core crimes. The terms international criminal law stricto sensu and international criminal law largo sensu can be said to correspond conceptually to the two distinct terms in Roman and Germanic languages: ‘droit international pénal’, ‘derecho internacional penal’ and ‘Völkerstrafrecht’ are similar in scope to international criminal law stricto sensu, whereas international criminal law largo sensu, or international criminal law interpreted broadly, corresponds to ‘droit pénal international’, ‘derecho penal internacional’ and ‘Internationales Strafrecht’ respectively—see Werle and Jessberger 2020, p. 35.
Many authors, including Werle and Jessberger 2020; Cassese 2008, pp. 3–4; Cryer 2010, p. 5 reserve the term international criminal law to refer to a body of rules concerning the core crimes. The other international crimes, or the so-called treaty crimes (transnational organised crime, terrorist offences, corruption, various trafficking offences, etc.), following this definition of international criminal law, fall into a relatively recent category of transnational criminal law. Scholars, influential in the field of international criminal law prior to this conceptual divergence, most notably M. Cherif Bassiouni, understood international criminal law primarily as international criminal law largo sensu, see Bassiouni 2013, pp. 1–57. For a discussion of the international/transnational criminal law divide and its implications for the discipline, see Guilfoyle 2020; Mégret 2020. For a critique of these varying approaches to international criminal law scope ratione materiae, see Baars 2019, pp. 243–263.
- 6.
Hegemony as an analytic concept is used, in particular, to theorise a dominant position of a state in the international system; it is also understood as a discursive practice. However, it is within Marxist theoretical framework that allows not only to identify hegemony, but also to explain the reasons for its emergence in the particular place and time by analysing the material basis thereof, see Knox 2019.
- 7.
Miéville 2005, p. 88.
- 8.
Marks 2008, p. 2.
- 9.
Cutler 2005, p. 534.
- 10.
Morton 2007, p. 96.
- 11.
Gramsci 2007, p. 340.
- 12.
Cutler 2005, p. 536.
- 13.
Morton 2007, p. 93.
- 14.
Knox 2019, p. 356, emphasis in the original. Nicos Poulantzas has thus argued about the role of law in constructing hegemony: ‘[i]t is exactly as if the abstract, formal and general character of law had rendered it the mechanism most suitable for fulfilling the key function of every dominant ideology: namely, of cementing together the social formation under the aegis of the dominant class’ in Poulantzas 1980, pp. 87–88.
- 15.
Cutler 2005, p. 536.
- 16.
Rajkovic 2020, p. 74.
- 17.
Morton 2007, p. 69.
- 18.
- 19.
The concept of hegemony has been widely used in the international relations literature (particularly in realist accounts) to analyse power relations among states—see Knox 2019, pp. 334–336. I do not engage with the concept of hegemony so understood.
- 20.
deGuzman 2020, pp. 22, 26.
- 21.
Mégret 2014, p. 19.
- 22.
Tallgren 2014, p. 76.
- 23.
Knox 2019, p. 351.
- 24.
Similarly, it is suggested by Werle and Jessberger that international criminal law draws a special ‘supranational legitimacy’ from the fact that it protects the interests of the international community that are attacked when an international crime is committed, Werle and Jessberger 2020, pp. 38–39.
- 25.
Nouwen 2012, p. 342.
- 26.
The universalisation of norms, values, and other elements of ideology, Knox argues, ‘has a material foundation in the universalizing and abstracting tendencies of capitalism, tendencies reproduced in international law’, Knox 2019, p. 358.
- 27.
Moreno-Ocampo 2007, p. 216.
- 28.
Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court, 6th Session, Remarks of the Prosecutor, 30 November 2007, https://asp.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/library/asp/Statement_Prosecutor_en_30Nov2007.pdf. Accessed 19 January 2022. Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court, 6th Session, Remarks of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, 3 December 2007, https://asp.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/library/asp/statement_SG_6thasp_3_Dec_2007.pdf. Accessed 17 February 2022. Office of the Prosecutor (2021) ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, Meets with the EU Foreign Affairs Ministers: “The ICC Is Central to a More Just and Rules-Based International System”. https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=pr1569. Accessed 12 May 2021
- 29.
- 30.
Mégret 2015, p. 78.
- 31.
Schwöbel-Patel 2021, p. 15.
- 32.
‘Justice’ in Lexico Dictionaries powered by Oxford https://www.lexico.com/definition/justice. Accessed 12 May 2021.
- 33.
At the same time, I do not necessarily suggest that the use to the term ‘global justice’ by practitioners, scholars, and civil society representatives is consciously aimed at establishing and maintaining hegemony—the operations of ideology are much more complex.
- 34.
- 35.
- 36.
I will go back to the concept of social justice and its meaning in the subsequent discussion of violence.
- 37.
Ratner 2015, pp. 19–20.
- 38.
While there is by now a vibrant discussion on various moral philosophical and ethical questions pertaining to international criminal law, it is noteworthy that the international criminal law practice and scholarship hardly engage with the philosophical literature on global justice, see Schwöbel-Patel 2021, p. 14.
- 39.
- 40.
- 41.
Nouwen and Werner 2015, p. 168.
- 42.
Preambular paras 3 and 4 state:
‘Recognizing that such grave crimes threaten the peace, security and well-being of the world, Affirming that the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole must not go unpunished and that their effective prosecution must be ensured by taking measures at the national level and by enhancing international cooperation…’, ICC Statute.
- 43.
Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court, 5th Session. Opening Remarks of the President of the Court, 23 November 2006, https://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/3EEF266E-E4B1-486C-9B05-DD0D87CDBEEB/143883/PK_20061123_en1.pdf, p. 2. Accessed 19 January 2022.
- 44.
- 45.
Nouwen 2012, pp. 332, 335.
- 46.
Royer 2017, p. 404.
- 47.
Nouwen 2012, p. 339.
- 48.
A detailed investigation of the normative content of the concept of gravity, its use and legitimating role in international criminal law is provided by deGuzman 2020. On the reliance of international criminal law on the concept of gravity, see p. 2.
- 49.
Preamble, ICC Statute.
- 50.
- 51.
Schabas 2017, pp. 182, 186.
- 52.
Ibid., p. 325.
- 53.
- 54.
Situation on Registered Vessels of the Comoros, the Hellenic Republic of Greece and the Kingdom of Cambodia (ICC-01/13), Decision on the request of the Union of the Comoros to review the Prosecutor’s decision not to initiate an investigation, 16 July 2015, para 21, as quoted in Schabas 2017, p. 186.
- 55.
- 56.
deGuzman 2020, p. 47.
- 57.
Mégret 2014, p. 23.
- 58.
This term was coined by the US representative at the Rome Conference David Scheffer, as quoted in Royer 2017, p. 407.
- 59.
- 60.
- 61.
Carvalho 2019, p. 9.
- 62.
ICC Statute, Articles 5–8.
- 63.
See, e.g., Situation in the Republic of Kenya (Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the ICC Statute on the Authorization of an Investigation into the Situation in the Republic of Kenya) ICC-01/09-19 (31 March 2010), para 84.
- 64.
deGuzman 2020, p. 72.
- 65.
ICC 2013, Elements of Crimes, pp. 2–3, https://www.icc-cpi.int/Publications/Elements-of-Crimes.pdf. Accessed 19 January 2022.
- 66.
ICC Statute, Article 7.
- 67.
Kalpouzos and Mann 2015, pp. 1–5.
- 68.
ILC, Report on the Work of Its Thirty-Sixth Session, 7 May–27 July 1984, UN Doc. A/39/10, para 63, as quoted in deGuzman 2020, p. 48.
- 69.
Schwöbel-Patel 2020, p. 788.
- 70.
Ibid.
- 71.
Anghie and Chimni 2004, p. 193.
- 72.
- 73.
Tzouvala 2020, pp. 64–66.
- 74.
In this section I provide some examples of low-tech and high-tech violence. For a further discussion on this point, see Tallgren 2014, p. 74.
- 75.
- 76.
Krever 2014a, pp. 83–84, 88.
- 77.
ICC Statute, Articles 25, 28.
- 78.
Nielsen 2008, pp. 98, 106. One of the proofs of the particularity of the Western concept of penal laws—against the purported universality of individual responsibility—is provided by Steven Humphreys, who notes that criminal law was one of the main instruments of the imperialist powers in constructing governable units in their colonial territories, where imprisonment as a form of punishment was virtually unknown until the late 19th century—see Humphreys 2010, p. 117.
- 79.
Werle 2007, p. 957.
- 80.
Violence was investigated, among others, by Jacques Derridà, Walter Benjamin and Michel Foucault. For a brief overview of these thinkers' takes on violence, see Antiphon 2009.
- 81.
Farmer 2003.
- 82.
Nixon 2011.
- 83.
Galtung 1969, p. 168. It should be noted that, in so far as the main focus of Galtung’s research is peace, and the concept of violence appears to be instrumental to the study of the concept of peace, Galtung does not develop the theory elaborated in this article much in his subsequent work.
- 84.
Galtung 1969, p. 168, emphasis in original.
- 85.
Ibid., p. 169.
- 86.
The violence of preventable deaths or severely compromised life quality is discussed at length by Farmer 2003. Among a variety of case-studies he considers, inter alia, the deaths from antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis in Russian prisons in the 1990s.
- 87.
Galtung 1969, p. 170.
- 88.
Ibid., p. 171.
- 89.
Ibid., p. 173. In subsequent works, Galtung distinguished the third type of violence—cultural violence, that is embodied in language, patterns of reasoning, symbols, etc.—see, e.g., Galtung 2013a.
- 90.
Galtung 1969, pp. 172, 183.
- 91.
Ibid., p. 171.
- 92.
Galtung 2013b, p. 37.
- 93.
Ibid.
- 94.
The outcome of the existing division of labour, he suggests, is ‘[s]tructural violence all over the place; among and within countries’, see Galtung 2013a, p. 55, footnote in the original omitted.
- 95.
Galtung 1969, p. 173, emphasis in italics in original, emphasis in bold added.
- 96.
Carvalho suggests, in this regard, that ‘…the same processes that make visible and naturalise the individualised violence of crime also blind us to other, more pervasive—and, one could argue, more dangerous—kinds of violence upon which criminalisation depends. These include the structural violence embedded in contemporary societies, which preserves and promotes structures of inequality that, among many other things, protect patriarchal structures and socio-economic exploitation, and the epistemic violence that makes society see and treat racialised and marginalised populations as dangerous criminals first, and human beings second—if at all’ in Carvalho 2019, p. 12.
- 97.
Žižek 2009, p. 2.
- 98.
Nixon 2011, p. 11.
- 99.
Galtung 2013a, p. 41.
- 100.
Ibid., p. 56.
- 101.
Galtung 1969, p. 178.
- 102.
Butler discusses concepts of recognisability and frame of recognition and Butler 2009, pp. 3–7.
- 103.
Ibid., p. 6.
- 104.
Ibid., p. 5.
- 105.
Marks 2011, p. 75, emphasis added.
- 106.
Krever 2014b, pp. 130–131.
- 107.
Simpson 2014, p. 170.
- 108.
As Tallgren suggests, ‘[a]n even more fundamental question is whether criminal law could ever be able to provide closure to large-scale, deep-rooted injustice and suffering, and whether the expectation of finality after a criminal trial has established the truth by identifying the guilty could in fact violently silence other truths, other kinds of responsibilities’, Tallgren 2002, p. 593.
- 109.
McAuliffe and Schwöbel-Patel 2018, p. 1001.
- 110.
Krever 2014b, p. 129.
- 111.
Poulantzas argues that law in the capitalist mode of production assumes a leading role in ideology, the role previously occupied by religion: ‘The centre of legitimacy shifts away from the sacred towards legality… and juridical-political ideology supplants religious ideology as the predominant forum’, in Poulantzas 1980, p. 87. See also Krever 2014b, p. 131.
- 112.
Krever 2014b, p. 131.
- 113.
Ibid., p. 129; Schwöbel-Patel 2021, p. 56.
- 114.
Gevers 2014, p. 231.
- 115.
- 116.
The hard lot of international criminal lawyers has been thus formulated by Werle: ‘the collective nature of crimes under international law does not absolve us of the need to determine individual responsibility’, Werle 2007, p. 953.
- 117.
The distinction between intended and unintended violence is another axis along which Galtung maps violence, which, however, seems closely tied to the distinction between direct and indirect violence: in the absence of a subject exerting violence, there can be no intention in structural violence, see Galtung 1969, p. 171.
- 118.
Esenin undated.
- 119.
Schwöbel-Patel 2021, p. 41.
- 120.
Ibid., p. 59.
- 121.
Galtung 1969, pp. 167–168, 183.
- 122.
Ibid., p. 183.
- 123.
On the interplay of cultural, structural and direct violence, see Galtung 2013a, p. 46; for the discussion of deep culture, see p. 56.
- 124.
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Kotova, A. (2023). Violence in International Criminal Law and Beyond. In: Jeßberger, F., Steinl, L., Mehta, K. (eds) International Criminal Law—A Counter-Hegemonic Project?. International Criminal Justice Series, vol 31. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-551-5_3
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