Relationship Of The International Criminal Court And The Security Council

The establishment of the International Criminal Court, which is the first permanent court with jurisdiction over individuals who committed international crimes, is no doubt a landmark event in the development of international law. Since the crimes under the subject-matter jurisdiction of the Court are more or less connected with international peace and security, there is great potential for the conflict between the functions of the Court and UN Security Council, which bears primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security under the UN Charter. Thus, the relationship between the Court and the Council deserves careful attention.For lack of actual practice of the Court, this article will only conduct a theoretical analysis based on the Statue of the Court and the UN Charter, as well as relevant legal materials. This article begins with the analysis of the establishment mode of the Court, which sets the tune for its relationship with the Council. Despite different proposals, the Court is established by a treaty. The following problem-oriented analysis is divided into three parts: first, the positive role of the Council to refer a situation to the Court; second, the negative role of the Council to defer the proceedings of the Court, and; third, the Council's role in the crime of aggression. Since the issue of judicial review is raised both in the positive role and negative role of the Council, a separate chapter is devoted to this delicate problem. The article ends with a brief analysis of the last two problems concerning the Council's role in the Court, i.e. judicial cooperation and sources of funds.Since the judicial practice of the International Court of Justice and the two International Criminal Tribunals will shed some light on the issue under analysis, the method of comparative study is adopted in this article.