La Corte Penale Internazionale

This article examines the unprecedented attack currently being waged against the International Criminal Court (ICC), interpreting it as a symptom of a deeper dynamic directed against limits on power, independent institutions, and the counterpowers they embody. It reveals a broader attack on the international rule of law. Adopting a historical perspective, the article distinguishes between continuities – contestation of the ICC has been a constant feature since the 1998 Rome Conference – and discontinuities that mark a qualitatively new threshold: the adoption of coercive measures directly targeting ICC judges and prosecutors. The article analyses in particular the sanctions imposed by the United States and the convictions in absentia handed down by the Russian Federation. Paradoxically, the attack intensifies at the very moment the Court issued, for the first time, arrest warrants against nationals of permanent members of the UN Security Council. The article identifies three targets of this unprecedented attack – judicial independence, equality in the application of law, and the role of law as a constraint on power – and proposes three minimum lines of response: the construction of a European legal space grounded in shared adherence to the Rome Statute, including as a formal condition for EU membership; regulatory measures to counter the overcompliance of European banks, insurers and digital platforms; and the guarantee of minimum digital sovereignty for international judicial institutions. Defending the ICC means defending a principle that States themselves have established: that there are limits, and that those limits apply to all. This is the only meaningful alternative to the law of force – to a law under the control of major powers, suspended at will, or placed at the disposal of the sovereign.