Currently, while many if not most states have signed international treaties that oblige them to prosecute persons accused of certain crimes (or extradite suspects to states that will prosecute them), such as torture or grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, many of these same states are not actually able to prosecute such persons before their national courts for international crimes. This is because many states, especially those which adhere to the common law system, can only prosecute persons for crimes that exist under national law.
Since many States Parties have so far failed in their obligation to implement the relevant international treaties into their national law, these specific internationally prohibited acts do not exist as crimes under the national law of many states. Of course, persons suspected of committing these crimes could be charged with supposedly equivalent crimes under national law, such as murder or assault, although such charges do not match the particularity or gravity of the international crimes committed or take cognisance of the context in which the crimes were committed.
The most promising aspect of the new era in international criminal law, which the adoption of the ICC Statute heralds, is the pressure it puts on states wishing to ratify it (and to take advantage of the principle of complimentarity) to amend their criminal law to enable them to prosecute before their national courts persons charged with crimes coming within the jurisdiction of the ICC. Already, such a trend is apparent.
Since many States Parties have so far failed in their obligation to implement the relevant international treaties into their national law, these specific internationally prohibited acts do not exist as crimes under the national law of many states. Of course, persons suspected of committing these crimes could be charged with supposedly equivalent crimes under national law, such as murder or assault, although such charges do not match the particularity or gravity of the international crimes committed or take cognisance of the context in which the crimes were committed.
The most promising aspect of the new era in international criminal law, which the adoption of the ICC Statute heralds, is the pressure it puts on states wishing to ratify it (and to take advantage of the principle of complimentarity) to amend their criminal law to enable them to prosecute before their national courts persons charged with crimes coming within the jurisdiction of the ICC. Already, such a trend is apparent.