Thread

1. petcat · 1790157264 · focus · HN ↗

   > "The Trump Administration has been clear: the International Criminal Court is a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

   I've never really thought about the ICC at all other than just knowing that the few countries that possess both hard power (military) and soft power (economic) have refused to join or recognize the ICC since its inception in 2002.

   Why would China and USA both not recognize it? It seems like they're the only ones that really matter.

   1. applfanboysbgon · 1790157491 · focus · HN ↗

      If you like doing illegal things, why would you voluntarily submit to a framework for punishing illegal things?
   2. lazyasciiart · 1790157496 · focus · HN ↗

      They don’t recognize it because they don’t have to. Why would you voluntarily agree to be bound by laws and subject to a court system if you have the option to just say you didn’t want to?
   3. arlort · 1790158359 · focus · HN ↗

      I'll preface it with the only part of the US argument against the ICC that is somewhat principled and reasonable: there is some concern that it'd be used for political prosecution of US service members or decision makers outside of constitutional guarantees like a jury trial

      I don't think it actually would happen if it joined but since it's the US I can also imagine someone being pushed to (or doing it for some personal fame) to bend the procedural rules to at least launch an investigation that wouldn't generally be launched if the facts were the same in another western country.

      That being said, their accusations towards the ICC as it has operated so far (as opposed to why they don't join) are mostly pretextual and right now they're mostly motivated by their alliance with Israel which is being investigated over Gaza

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.