EVOLVING JURISPRUDENCE ON COMPLEMENTARITY UNDER THE ROME STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

The establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC), on 1 July, 2002, does not release States from their primary responsibility to bring to justice those accused of committing egregious crimes such as genocide, war crimes, crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity. Under the principle of complementarity which is a response to respect the prerogative of States and the basis of the ICC’s jurisdiction, States continue to maintain their primacy over criminal jurisdiction, while the ICC maintains a secondary jurisdiction which can be activated when States are unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute international crimes. Since the entry into force of the Rome Statute, complementarity has evolved with practice. This work provided a theoretical background to the conceptualization of complementarity and jurisprudence evolving there from. Accordingly, this research traced the evolution and development of the concept of complementarity, examined its characteristic features, challenges, limitations, possibilities and opportunities the concept presents for the effective combating of impunity. The work adopted a doctrinal approach consisting in qualitative analysis of data collected from case laws, legislations, library materials and internet sources. It was argued in this work that under the principle of complementarity, the existing legal and institutional framework in respect of the effective combating of impunity is largely unsatisfactory, pitting States against the ICC especially where the jurisdiction of the court is triggered by the United Nations Security Council referral or when States feel that they are genuinely pursing justice through alternative judicial mechanism. It was thus posited that there is a need for the establishment of a coherent legal, institutional and jurisprudential framework for positive and more proactive complementarity model as against its classical model. In this light, the jurisprudence evolving from the court on complementarity appropriate policy alternatives and considerations both domestically and internationally, are considered so that the ICC takes an active role in helping a State fulfill its Rome Statute obligations instead of simply waiting on the sidelines to determine whether a State is both willing and able. As such, the collaborative efforts of the States and the ICC will promote objective of international criminal justice which is to end impunity.