Weakness as Routine in the Operations of the Intentional Criminal Court

Abstract

How can one account for the contrast between the protracted weakness of the International Criminal Court (icc) and the strength of a global justice discourse focused on the criminalization of state and societal violence? To address this puzzle, this article suggests the hypothesis of global justice as a ‘weak field’ that is, a space that is weak as regards its internal autonomy but not weak in its wider social effects. Looking at professional patterns within the icc, and the way in which evidence is marshalled into the Court, its gist is that weakness is not a transitory feature — rather it has developed into a structural feature of the icc, and the broader field of global justice. Grounded in Bourdieu’s field theory, it relies on biographical interviews with icc staff, academics and members of non-governmental organisations operating around the Court.