Legal Rules, Political Realities and Policy Choices in the Functioning of the Cooperation Regime of the International Criminal Court

After almost 15 years of its entry into force, the cooperation regime under the icc Statute has been put to test in roughly twenty cases in eight different situations. The time is thus now ripe for looking into what has, and what has not, worked in practice. This chapter is structured along the following lines. First, it highlights the basic features of the cooperation regime envisaged by the drafters of the icc Statute. It next examines the practice of the icc and assesses the effectiveness of international cooperation since its establishment. Finally, it inquires into whether different rules might have yielded different results and provocatively concludes that the limits of the icc cooperation regime lie in the political realities and policy choices of the Court, rather than in the legal regime designed by the icc Statute.