The First Global Prosecutor: Promise and Constraints.

Dutton, Yvonne M.

The First Global Prosecutor: Promise and Constraints. Edited by Martha Minow, C. Cora True-Frost, and Alex Whiting. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015.

This volume of thirteen essays explores the legal, practical, and institutional challenges faced by Luis Moreno Ocampo, the first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Why focus on the ICC's prosecutor? Because as the title of the book suggests, Ocampo was the world's first global prosecutor and, both before and since the role was created, the issue of an independent prosecutor who can bring cases that charge individuals with international crimes has proved controversial (p. 20). A persistent theme binding the chapters together is the focus on whether and how a "restrictive approach to law and procedure hurts or helps the prosecutor" or the institution more generally (p. 59). A "restrictive" approach refers to the ICC's institutional design. While the prosecutor "enjoys considerable independence and discretion, the position is also highly constrained" (p. 21). For example, the ICC prosecutor cannot make arrests or order the production of documentary evidence or witnesses: the prosecutor requires assistance and cooperation from states to obtain custody over suspects and to conduct investigations (pp. 23-24).

These constraints have meant that the Office of the Prosecutor has suffered some failures: one such failure is that it has been unable to arrest Omar al-Bashir. Alex Whiting addresses some of the ICC's failures in his essay, explaining that the court has often lacked the support of influential actors like the United Nations--an institution that was critical to the success of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (p. 141). Although the UN Security Council referred the situations in Sudan and Libya to the ICC, it thereafter turned its attentions to efforts at achieving peace in these states instead of pushing for justice (pp. 141-142). This volume of essays, however, also challenges us to consider the possibility that "limitations on the prosecutor's powers also suggest strengths" (p. 22). Why? Because the limitations mean that the prosecutor must obtain the support of states and institutions to survive. In her essay, C. Cora TrueFrost provides an example of how the prosecutor was able to turn the Security Council into something of an ally. It referred the situations of Sudan and Libya to the ICC for prosecution. Further, over Ocampo's tenure, the Council "increasingly frequently reaffirmed the ICC's role in prosecuting violations of international criminal law in twenty-six of its resolutions, and it eventually ceased its attempts to defer potential ICC prosecutions" (p. 251). The excellent essays in this book make it one that scholars of the ICC will want on their shelf.