International Court Jesters"I condemn the American pressure," George Soros thundered yesterday in Podgorica, Montenegro. He was referring to Washington's insistence that its Balkan peacekeepers are not subject to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court . A year ago President Bush withdrew the U.S. from participation in the treaty that created the ICC -- a pact Bill Clinton had signed at the 11th hour of his Presidency, even though Mr. Clinton said it had "significant flaws" and urged his successor not to seek Senate ratification.
If any doubt remains that Mr. Bush did the right thing, the Athens Bar Association -- that's Greece, not Georgia -- should put it to rest. The association announced Monday that it plans to file a complaint for "crimes against humanity and war crimes" in connection with the Iraq conflict. The target of the complaint, naturally, is not Saddam Hussein but Tony Blair and other British officials. The Athenians say they may also seek charges against Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, even though Madrid sent no combat troops to Iraq.
Yet the Greek complaint excludes the U.S., probably because the lawyers anticipate that they would lose any direct confrontation with the Bush Administration. The ICC claims jurisdiction even over countries that aren't party to the treaty, but Mr. Bush has made clear that the Constitution authorizes him "to take actions" -- presumably including military action -- "to protect U.S. nationals from the purported jurisdiction of the treaty."
Questions of "international law" often turn on arcane procedural matters. Mr. Blair's Attorney General is reported to have advised the Prime Minister in March that while military action in Iraq was justified under the 17 existing U.N. resolutions, it would be illegal if the Security Council rejected an 18th. Under this theory, Jacques Chirac's decision to veto would have made a criminal out of Mr. Blair. The Greek lawyers, of course, think ending Saddam Hussein's oppression was a crime with or without France's veto.
When Saddam or his henchmen are captured, they must face justice -- either in a reconstituted Iraqi court system or in a special international tribunal set up for that purpose, a la the former Yugoslavia. The unaccountable ICC, however, is looking more and more like a venue for political grandstanding -- a means for harassing U.S. allies while letting real criminals like Saddam get off on a technicality.