Citation

McGoldrick D, Williams S, Cryer R, Mora PD. Int. Compar. Law Q. 2010; 59(03): 803-813.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S002058931000031X

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

As a precursor to the United Kingdom's ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2001, the respective Parliaments in the UK adopted two Acts to implement the obligations that treaty imposed on the UK, and to implement the international crimes, as defined in that treaty, into the law of the UK. When the International Criminal Court Act (ICC Act) was being debated in 2001, Baroness Scotland, speaking for the Government, explained that part of the raison d'etre of the Act was that the UK ought not to be seen as a safe haven for international criminals. However, in line with article 11 of the Rome Statute, the jurisdiction of UK courts over such offences, insofar as they were not already covered by the Geneva Conventions Act 1957 and the Genocide Act 1969 (the latter of which was repealed by the ICC Act) only applied prospectively.