International criminal governance: Will the international criminal court be an ‘effective’ mechanism for justice?

On 22 November 2010, the trial in the case of The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo commenced at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The establishment of the ICC represents the culmination, thus far at least, of a process that has seen a gradual internationalisation of criminal governance, involving the development of international justice mechanisms to address many of the situations in which international crimes have been perpetrated. Once victory by the Allied and Associated Powers seemed likely during the First World War, they began to publicly call for the punishment of major war criminals through the processes of international law. The jurisdiction of the Court is subject to the principle of complementarity' that has been established under the Rome Statute. The establishment of these ad hoc Tribunals was a significant and highly symbolic development. It had been almost fifty years since the Nuremberg and Tokyo Military Tribunals had been created.