by Kevin Jon Heller
Whoops, spoke too soon about the WSJ’s anti-ICC editorial. It does indeed contain a lie — and its a doozy:
What’s more, no amount of reform of the founding treaty will change the ICC’s inherent flaw. The ICC is a child of the doctrine of “universal jurisdiction,” which holds that courts can adjudicate crimes committed anywhere in the world.
As anyone who has spent five minutes reading the Rome Statue knows, the Court is based on two forms of jurisdiction: territorial and active-nationality. Both of which the U.S. uses and accepts that other states may use. Proposals to base the ICC on universal jurisdiction were soundly rejected during the drafting of the Rome Statute.
Not that the Editorial Board of the WSJ cares. In the absence of facts, lies suit them just fine.