What sort of global justice is 'international criminal justice'?

• Published in: Journal of international criminal justice Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 77 - 96
• Main Author: Megret, F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Oxford University Press 01-03-2015
• Subjects: CRIMINAL JUSTICE; Criminal justice, Administration of; CRIMINAL LAW; International cooperation; International Criminal Court; INTERNATIONAL LAW; International relations; Legal studies; Tribunals & commissions
• ISSN: 1478-1387; 1478-1395
• DOI: 10.1093/jicj/mqu080

International criminal justice is more often thought of as a form of criminal rather than global justice. Yet, criminal law on its own cannot provide a comprehensive theory of the justice of international criminal justice because of its predominant focus on fairness assessed on a case-by-case basis. Understanding the distributive effects of international criminal justice between different cases is where theories of global justice can prove useful.What international criminal tribunals 'distribute' are forms of stigma. This may be sought out or shunned by states. Allocating too much or too little stigma to crimes will result in injustice. The question then is among whom will this allocation take place. The influential cosmopolitan view of international criminal justice posits that it should be between bare individual members of a world community; the international view suggests instead that individuals are always, at least partly, figureheads for communities and nations and that it is among them that attention should be distributed. The article argues in favour of a view of international criminal justice seen as a fairly classical form of international justice, and suggests that failure to take this dimension into account will weaken the International Criminal Court's claim to being a just institution.