10 - Concluding Remarks

Summary

Chapter 10 discusses the main findings of this book concerning the politics of international criminal law practice and explores the question whether the norms and practices associated with the assessment of individual criminal responsibility are likely to continue changing in the future. This chapter presents a pluralist understanding of ‘legalism’, as a concept that entertains a range of different visions of international criminal justice. Next, this chapter highlights the importance of understanding the normative dynamics taking place inside the international criminal justice field, namely the battle of different visions of legalism over the construction of criminal responsibility rules, for analysing trial outcomes at the Court. Finally, Chapter 10 observes that it is possible that the restrained approach to criminal responsibility, displayed at the Bemba Appeals Chamber Majority and the Gbagbo and Blé Goudé Trial Chamber Majority, can create a backlash within the international criminal justice community, even if that backlash does not end up prompting reform at the ICC in the short term.