Lucrecia Garcia Iommi presented her paper “Legitimacy, Indeterminacy, and the Power of Legal Interpreters in the International Criminal Court”.
Paper Abstract
Drawing from International Relations (IR) theory and Critical Legal Studies (CLS), this article engages with the question of the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The literature on the legitimacy of the ICC emphasizes the significance of procedure, in particular the right to a fair trial. This paper argues that the indeterminate nature of the legal rules that govern the Court undermines the possibility of establishing legitimacy on these grounds. Yet indeterminacy also endows ICC judges with the power to strengthen the Court’s legitimacy by interpreting the aforementioned rules in a manner that facilitates the participation of victims and attends to their welfare. The constitutive power of legal interpreters thus creates a plausible path to foster the legitimacy of the ICC at this critical juncture.
Speakers
- Lucrecia Garcia Iommi (presenter) is Assistant Professor in the College of Arts & Sciences at Fairfield University.
- Nicole de Silva is Assistant Professor, Political Science at Concordia University.
- Andrea Vilán is Assistant Professor in the Department of Justice, Law & Criminology at Princeton University.
