Legal and Political Dynamics of Raucous Kampala Compromise

From 31 May to 11 June 2010, the first Review Conference of the Rome Statute took place in Kampala, Uganda. Under the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court can only exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression when the ASP amends the Statute to include a definition of the crime, and the conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction. The Review Conference managed to define the crime, and set out the jurisdictional conditions. This book gives an analytical discription of the main issues which had remained unresolved concerning jurisdictional regime of the ICC vis-à-vis aggression prosecution; inter alia, the controversy over filter mechanism and the question of whether consent by the alleged aggressor State should be required. After almost two weeks of political negotiations and arduous give-and-take, the Review Conference adopted the aggression amendments by consensus. This work seeks to illustrate how the negotiating dynamics eventually led to a consensus agreement on all controversial issues relating to the jurisdictional regime.