Supranational Protection and the Rome Statute: Should Drug Trafficking Join the Ranks?

Abstract

Since its foundation, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has received many questions about its legitimacy, specifically considering the additional level of supranational protection granted to the core crimes contained in the Rome Statute. This paper aims to analyse the legitimacy of this additional level of supranational protection conferred on only four core crimes and denied to all others by investigating what qualifies a crime as a core crime and whether the list should be limited to only the four core crimes currently under the Rome Statute. Specifically, the paper will discuss whether the crime of drug trafficking should be included under the jurisdiction of the ICC. It will do this by addressing the research question: are the currently selected core crimes under the Rome Statute justified in receiving an additional level of supranational protection, and should drug trafficking be granted similar status under the ICC?

Through a discussion of the legal definition of core crimes and a historical account of the creation of the Rome Statute, the paper argues for a special character of the four core crimes currently under the Statute that warrants an additional level of supranational protection. Further, through historical, formal, and normative arguments the paper makes a case for the inclusion of the crime of drug trafficking under the Rome Statute and for a re-examination of the criteria for amending the Statute to provide a clear legal definition of core crime.