The Interests of Justice under the ICC Prosecutor Power: Escaping Forward

This paper examines the application of article 53 of the Statute of the International
Criminal Court (ICC), which provides the prosecutor with the discretionary power to decline to
investigate or prosecute, if the ‘interests of justice’ would not be served. First, it will analyse the
scope of the concept of the ‘interests of justice’. Second, it will consider whether the prosecutor
should take into consideration alternative justice mechanisms when making the decision. It will
further investigate whether ‘peace processes’ can be under the consideration of the prosecutor
when deciding on the ‘interests of justice’.
This issue is part of my wider research project, which provides an analytical discussion of
the prosecutorial discretion of the prosecutor. It reflects on the approaches to the relationship
between international law and politics advanced by Martti Koskenniemi. His theory aims to help
decision-makers to work objectively whenever a tension arises between concrete and normative
demands in international legal institution.