The defence of an institution under challenge: The EU and the International Criminal Court

This chapter analyses EU deployment of strategies of ‘entrenchment’ and ‘accommodation’ to react to challenges that could have negatively affected—or that might in the future negatively affect—the attainment of universal ratification of the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court’s institutional development and its day-to-day effectiveness. Two episodes are discussed: First, US policy before and after the signing of the Rome Statute (a power-based challenge) and resultant limitations on the Court’s independence and jurisdiction following the misalignment of power with institution and ideas; and, second, the resentment increasingly voiced by the African Union on behalf of certain African states over the Court’s caseload (ideational-based challenge) and the impact this resentment could have on the normative congruence between the Court and prevailing ideas in the international structure