Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.lawsociety.ie
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The International Bar Association (IBA) has denounced “in the strongest terms” last week’s US imposition of sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The lawyers’ body has called on all ICC state parties to take “concrete and swift” action to protect the court and limit the impact.
IBA president Claudio Visco said that the association was “deeply concerned” that sanctions against the world’s only permanent international criminal court would put the ICC mandate at risk and frustrate victims’ hopes for justice.
“Beyond obstructing justice for victims, these sanctions impose an unacceptable burden on the independence of judges and lawyers who are working on their behalf,” he added.
‘Total rejection’ of rule of law
On 9 October, the US administration imposed sanctions on the ICC under Executive Order 14203 of 6 February 2025.
Unlike previous sanctions, which designated individual officials and judges, these sanctions add the court as an entity to the list of specially designated nationals.
IBA executive director Dr Mark Ellis said that the US move showed “the total rejection of the rule of law” on the part of the Trump administration.
In a separate statement, outgoing Law Society of England and Wales president Mark Evans said that, by sanctioning the court itself, the US was mounting “a serious attack on the independence of the international justice system”.
‘Wider assault’
Last month, Judge Nicolas Guillou of the ICC spoke about the attacks on the court at an event in Blackhall Place, where he received a medal of excellence from the Law Society’s Centre of Justice and Law Reform.
Earlier this month, the ICC president Judge Tomoko Akane told an event in the Four Courts that 12 of the court’s 18 judges were currently the subject of coercive measures.
She said that, while such attacks were couched in narratives that were specific to the ICC and its activities, they were also part of “a broader assault against the rule of law”.
‘Rogue court’
Announcing the sanctions last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the ICC as a “rogue court”, which he urged US allies to “rein in”.
“If they do not, the United States will continue its campaign to dismantle the ICC, brick by brick, until Americans are threatened no longer,” he said.
In response, the ICC said that it would not be deterred by what it described as “an attempt to obstruct the course of justice and to prevent the court from doing what it was created to do”.
The court said that the US action was “an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order”.
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