Marco Rubio: Why We’re Dismantling the International Criminal Court

The Wall Street Journal ^ | July 13, 2026 10:00 am ET | Marco Rubio

[E. Pluribus Unum]

America never agreed to a world tribunal that can override our own courts and the Constitution.

Most of us would struggle to imagine a world in which U.S. soldiers, police officers, Border Patrol agents and elected leaders could be dragged before an international court, tried by judges from random countries across the globe, found guilty under international laws we neither consent to nor control, and then imprisoned thousands of miles from America.

But that is what the International Criminal Court now claims the power to do.

The ICC was born at the turn of the century. At first, it was marketed as a narrow backstop to prosecute the gravest crimes. Now the ICC and its allies seek a standing world tribunal with near-unlimited reach, empowered to override the courts and constitutions of the U.S. and other sovereign states—and to prosecute and arrest our citizens.

Americans never agreed to any of this. Both of our major political parties opposed the prospect of handing a distant global court the power to prosecute and jail our own citizens. President Clinton refused to submit the Rome Statute (the ICC’s founding charter) to the Senate for ratification due to his “concerns about significant flaws in the Treaty.” Two years later, a bipartisan Senate supermajority passed the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act, authorizing the president “to use all means necessary”—including military force—to prevent the ICC from detaining or arresting Americans.

Americans found themselves in the crosshairs anyway: In 2020 the ICC launched an investigation into what chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda of Gambia described as “war crimes by members of the United States armed forces” in Afghanistan, declaring that the U.S. government hadn’t prosecuted enough American soldiers to satisfy the court. In effect, Ms. Bensouda was anointing herself the final judge of U.S. military policy and...

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TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS:

[lepton]

The IPCC is the bastard child of a talking clique with delusions of grandeur (The UN).

Unlike many here, I do think the UN has a valid purpose...but being in charge of anything isn’t it.

[ConservativeMind]

The UN can’t do anything ambassadors can’t do.

The UN should be abolished.

[Bob Wills is still the king]

Dismantling the ICC to protect himself, Bibi, Trump, and other current players from ICC justice because of war crimes and genocide.

Whether accurate or not, that’s exactly how the world sees it today.

[Yardstick]

Yes, we know that’s how commies like you see it.

[Sequoyah101]

You mean like they are doing now in condemning the actions of Iran and organizing coordinated action against them in the interest of free trade?

Oh wait, they are not doing that either are they?

What are they doing anyway?

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[Avalon Memories]

Unlike many here, I do think the UN has a valid purpose...

What purpose would that be in your opinion? Hmmmm? The United Nations, formerly the League of Nations, was born out of the desire by international elites to create a world government. There is no valid purpose for the UN other than to continue to metastasize into a world government controlled by European elites who never quite got over the loss of the feudal system.

[captmar-vell]

Keir Starmer backed the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu.

That vile reprobate also worked for free on legal witch hunts against British troops.

[Paladin2]

Does this mean Jack Smith goes to gaol?

[Paladin2]

“IPCC” -—> Climate Change.

[LadyDoc]

the Philippines did not sign on the ICC but the present President Marcos allowed them to arrest President Duterte for going after drug dealers and pushers. Most of these people were killed in raids and some were killed by families who suffered from their crimes but couldn't get justice in the slow courts. But Duterte opposed the CIA shennanigans in Davao city (where they got a Yankee Drug dealer out of jail and out of the country).

So the CIA got Omidyar money to fund Rappler to oppose him in an ENGLISH on line news source, something that was picked up an echoed in all the MSM in Europe and the USA...

and when the gov’t pointed out foreign money funding news sources was illegal, the gal in charge started claiming she was a martyr, and got the Nobel Peace prize.

So the ICC will probably go against ElSalvador and any other country that jails bad guys.

But they won't go against China jailing a million Uighars in reeducation camps of course.

[Lurker]

“Whether accurate or not, that’s exactly how the world sees it today.”

I don’t give a flying **** how “the world” sees it.

Nor should any American.

L

[RandFan]

It’s true but I’d like to see just one exception: Fauci tried there.

Ironic he’s going to escape that route of justice too because the US doesn’t recognize it

[Spacetrucker]

My most heartfelt sympathies to the missus. While I nevwr really interacted with him often, he X was a part of the fabric of our little corner of life that will be missed.

[birg]

We were proud of the Nuremberg Trials associated with the International Military Tribunal held by the Allied powers in Nuremberg, Germany, between 1945 and 1949. World war 2 related