Integrating restorative justice into the ICC’s legal framework: possibility and necessity

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the only permanent international court that has jurisdiction over the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. The ICC is a young international organisation, and is now facing many difficulties when dealing with international crimes. One criticism towards the ICC is that its legal mechanism cannot well balance peace and justice, and has not shown enough attention to victims’ need. It has been argued that the justice at the ICC needs to be more restorative. This research firstly clarifies the real issues for the ICC to maintain peace and achieve justice. It also provides an answer to what restorative justice should mean to international criminal justice. In addition, the case studies on the situations at the ICC and at some other international criminal tribunals have been carefully analysed to prove that the separate utilisation of pure restorative justice approach and the formal criminal procedure mechanism cannot bring peace and justice together. They must be combined to improve the impact of international criminal justice. This research goes deeper to the meaning of justice for international criminal justice and the ICC, and displays the pitfalls in achieving the targets. It is concluded that for better delivering justice to the stakeholders in international crimes and the damaged society, the ICC needs to empower victims and encourage the effective communication between victims and perpetrators, and make the justice at the ICC reach local communities, rather than setting justice as merely symbol