Doctoral Dissertation Research: State Cooperation with the International Criminal Court

国际刑事法院（ICC）的设立是为了将大规模暴行的肇事者绳之以法。作为一个没有警察部队的国际法院，国际刑事法院依靠各国的合作来完成基本的调查任务，例如提供进入现场或逮捕嫌疑人的机会。国家合作是实现法院结束有罪不罚的使命的先决条件。然而，人们对国家与法院合作的程度和理由知之甚少。本研究考察了国际刑事法院成员国（已批准《罗马规约》的国家）何时以及为何与国际刑事法院合作。对于寻求提高国际人权机构效率的美国政策制定者和人权倡导者来说，该项目的研究结果将证明是有价值的，因为它们可以促进问责文化和促进地区稳定。此外，迅速和公正的审判符合严重侵犯人权行为受害者的利益，他们往往没有其他诉诸司法的途径。研究设计集中在非洲，这是研究国家合作的一个特别重要的地区，因为目前国际刑事法院的所有案件都起源于非洲，因为这种起诉重点促使一些非洲国家呼吁集体退出法院。两种形式的国家合作至关重要。首先，利用联合国大会上350个国家发言的数据库，研究调查了对法院的政治支持和批评是如何在时间和地区上发展起来的。支持性的话语可以向其他国家发出信号，表明国际刑事法院被视为一个合法的行为体，并受到成员国的信任。其次，本研究通过对非洲国家（肯尼亚、科特迪瓦、南非）与国际刑事法院之间“关键合作事件”的三个深入案例研究，分析了具体合规决策背后的基本原理。在为每个国家创建合作行为的时间表后，将使用基于一手和二手来源的过程追踪和一致性分析以及精英访谈来调查遵守和不遵守的因果途径。该项目通过研究修辞作为一种独特的合作形式，通过单独检查遵守和不遵守因素，以及通过强调非洲的区域动态作为遵守的新解释，推动了关于国家遵守国际法的学术辩论。

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was created to bring perpetrators of mass atrocities to justice. As an international court without a police force, the ICC depends on the cooperation of states to fulfill essential investigative tasks, such as providing access to sites or arresting suspects. State cooperation is the pre-condition for the achievement of the Court's mission to end impunity. However, little is known about the extent of and rationales behind state cooperation with the Court. This study examines when and why ICC member states (states that have ratified the Rome Statute) have cooperated with the Court. The project's findings will prove valuable for US policy makers and human rights advocates seeking to enhance the effectiveness of international human rights institutions as they can contribute to a culture of accountability and foster regional stability. Moreover, fast and fair trials are in the interest of the victims of grave human rights violations who often have no other recourse to justice.The research design concentrates on Africa, a particularly important region for studying state cooperation since all current ICC cases have originated in Africa and because this prosecution focus has prompted some African countries to call for en masse withdrawal from the Court. Two forms of state cooperation are crucial. First, using a database of 350 country statements at the UN General Assembly, the research investigates how political support for and critique of the Court have developed temporally and regionally. Supportive discourse can signal to other states that the ICC is seen as a legitimate actor and is trusted by member states. Second, the research analyzes the rationales behind concrete compliance decisions through three in-depth case studies of 'critical cooperation incidents' between African countries (Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, South Africa) and the ICC. After creating a timeline of cooperation behavior for each country, process tracing and congruence analysis based on primary and secondary sources as well as elite interviews will be used to investigate the causal pathways to compliance and non-compliance. The project advances scholarly debates on state compliance with international law by studying rhetoric as a distinct form of cooperation, by examining compliance and non-compliance factors separately, and by highlighting regional dynamics in Africa as a new explanation for compliance.