Who tries Gadhafi’s son could determine future of concept of national sovereignty

[Valin]

AEI:

John R. Bolton

6/10/13

 

Since 2011, when Libyans overthrew and killed Moammar Gadhafi, a little-noticed but highly significant legal battle has been fought over who will prosecute those in his regime accused of human-rights abuses.

 

In particular, the fate of his son, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, is the subject of an enormous struggle between Libya's post-Gadhafi government and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

 

Will Libya's new government or the ICC try Saif for crimes committed during his father's rule and the civil war that ousted him? This is not a dry-as-dust dispute over the jurisdiction of competing courts but a fundamental political issue about national responsibility and sovereignty with profound implications for the United States.

 

When the ICC treaty was under negotiation, supporters argued it would be needed only when a country's legal system wouldn't prosecute its own citizens. The complementarity doctrine, they contended, would ensure that nations prepared to take responsibility for crimes committed in their names would be free to do so.

 

Of course, no one had any idea how the abstract, untested complementarity theory would actually work.......(Snip)