Editing International Criminal Court (section)

=== Background ===
The establishment of an [[International court|international tribunal]] to judge political leaders accused of international crimes was first proposed during the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] in 1919 following the [[First World War]] by the [[Commission of Responsibilities]].<ref>{{Cite journal |date=January 1920 |title=Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0002930000133482/type/journal_article |journal=American Journal of International Law|volume=14 |issue=1–2 |pages=95–154 |doi=10.2307/2187841 |jstor=2187841 |s2cid=246013323 |issn=0002-9300|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schabas |first=William A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Awa7ghw5Q4C&pg=PA302 |title=An Introduction to the International Criminal Court |date=2011-02-17 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-49660-5}}</ref> The issue was addressed again at a conference held in [[Geneva]] under the auspices of the [[League of Nations]] in 1937, which resulted in the conclusion of the first convention stipulating the establishment of a permanent international court to try acts of international terrorism.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Archibugi |first1=Daniele |title=Crime and global justice: the dynamics of international punishment |last2=Pease |first2=Alice |date=2018 |publisher=Polity press |isbn=978-1-5095-1261-4 |location=Cambridge Medford (Mass.)}}</ref> The convention was signed by 13 states, but none ratified it and the convention never entered into force.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Galicki |first=Z |year=2016 |title=International Law and Terrorism |journal=American Behavioral Scientist |volume=48 |issue=6 |pages=743–757 |doi=10.1177/0002764204272576 |s2cid=144313162}}</ref>

Following the [[Second World War]], the [[Allies of World War II|allied powers]] established two ''[[ad hoc]]'' tribunals to prosecute [[Axis powers|Axis]] leaders accused of war crimes. The [[International Military Tribunal]], which sat in [[Nuremberg]], prosecuted German leaders while the [[International Military Tribunal for the Far East]] in [[Tokyo]] prosecuted Japanese leaders.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fichtelberg |first=Aaron |date=2009 |title=Fair Trials and International Courts: A Critical Evaluation of the Nuremberg Legacy |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/AARFTA |access-date=2023-12-02 |journal=Criminal Justice Ethics |volume=28 |pages=5–24 |doi=10.1080/07311290902831268}}</ref> In 1948 the [[United Nations General Assembly]] first recognized the need for a permanent international court to deal with atrocities of the kind prosecuted after World War II.<ref name="iccfact">{{Cite web |date=December 2002 |title=The International Criminal Court |url=https://www.un.org/News/facts/iccfact.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205220343/http://www.un.org/News/facts/iccfact.htm |archive-date=5 December 2006 |access-date=5 December 2006 |publisher=United Nations Department of Public Information}}</ref> At the request of the General Assembly, the [[International Law Commission]] (ILC) drafted two statutes by the early 1950s but these were shelved during the [[Cold War]], which made the establishment of an international criminal court politically unrealistic.<ref name="Cato">{{Cite web |last=Dempsey |first=Gary T. |date=16 July 1998 |url=http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-311es.html |title=Reasonable Doubt: The Case Against the Proposed International Criminal Court |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061228072538/http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-311es.html |archive-date=28 December 2006 |publisher=[[Cato Institute]] |access-date=31 December 2006}}</ref>

[[Benjamin B. Ferencz]], an investigator of [[Nazi war crime]]s after World War II and the Chief Prosecutor for the [[United States Army]] at the [[Einsatzgruppen trial]], became a vocal advocate of the establishment of international [[rule of law]] and of an international criminal court. In his book ''Defining International Aggression: The Search for World Peace'' (1975), he advocated for the establishment of such a court.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.benferencz.org/bio.html |title=Benjamin B Ferencz, Biography  |date=9 January 2008 |access-date=1 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080109011136/http://www.benferencz.org/bio.html |archive-date=9 January 2008}}</ref> Another leading proponent was [[Robert Kurt Woetzel]], a German-born professor of international law, who co-edited ''Toward a Feasible International Criminal Court'' in 1970 and created the Foundation for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court in 1971.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ferencz |first=Benjamin B. |date=January 1972 |editor-last=Stone |editor-first=Julius |editor2-last=Woetzel |editor2-first=Robert K. |title=Toward a Feasible International Criminal Court |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0002930000148201/type/journal_article |journal=American Journal of International Law|location=Geneva |publisher=World Peace Through Law Center |volume=66 |issue=1 |pages=213–215 |doi=10.2307/2198479 |jstor=2198479 |issn=0002-9300|url-access=subscription }}</ref>