A giant without limbs: the international criminal court's state-centric cooperation regime

The International Criminal Court (the ICC) is one of the great international institutions in mankind's history, with the potential to reconfigure significant aspects of the international system with regard to criminal jurisdiction. But like the international penal institutions before it, the success of the ICC revolves around international cooperation. An institutional check on the ICC's power is that it will have to work through states. State parties will be asked to arrest and surrender suspects, investigate and collect evidence, extend privileges and immunities to ICC officials, protect witnesses, enforce ICC orders for fines and forfeiture and prosecute those who have committed offenses against the administration of justice. The ICC will rely heavily on the cooperation of state parties individually and collectively for its success. This article provides an analysis of the ICC's international cooperation and judicial assistance regime, as well as some insight into the approaches that state parties have adopted in seeking to give effect to the letter and spirit of their domestic obligations