The International Criminal Court announced in a press release last Thursday that it had rejected challenges to its jurisdiction and had issued warrants for the arrest of the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
The warrants themselves are described as “secret” but the court did manage to produce a judgment of eight operative paragraphs after deliberating for six months and considering more than 100 written submissions.
What does the decision mean for Netanyahu and Gallant? What does it mean for countries like the United Kingdom whose laws allow it to give effect to warrants such as these?
More broadly, what does this mean for the much-criticised court and for the international rule of law?
These are among the questions I have been discussing with Natasha Hausdorff, a practising barrister and legal director of UK Lawyers for Israel Charitable Trust, in the latest episode of my podcast A Lawyer Talks.
The podcast was recorded before Professor Lord Verdirame KC and Professor Richard Ekins KC (hon) published their opinion on the lawfulness of executing the arrest warrant for Netanyahu in the UK.
They say:
If the government were to attempt to comply with the arrest warrant it would be acting beyond the parameters of the powers conferred on it by an act of parliament and would be violating the UK’s obligations in international law to respect state or diplomatic immunity.
To the extent that the government has indicated that it would attempt to execute an arrest warrant, its actions warrant strong denunciation.
Any court hearing an application from the secretary of state under part 2 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001 should reject the application on the grounds that it is incompatible with section 23 and with the rules about state or diplomatic immunity incorporated into and having effect in UK law.
In a letter to the attorney general Lord Hermer KC, the Conservative shadow attorney general Lord Wolfson of Tredegar KC asks the government’s senior law officer to confirm that the International Criminal Court Act 2001 requires the UK to give effect to Mr Netanyahu’s immunity under customary international law as a serving prime minister of a non-state party.
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