African Leaders and the ICC: Much Ado about Immunity

Abstract

The paper examines international criminal jurisprudence with a view to putting the issue of sovereign immunity in the right perspective within the context of the furore between African States and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The research is library based. It relies on secondary materials from learned journals, and textbooks by most learned international publicists, reports of the variegated international tribunals and so forth. The paper found that jus cogens infractions are not attributable to a State and so cannot be imputed to it for the purpose of grounding immunity ratione materiae. It concludes that there is nothing as absolute immunity and that withdrawal from the ICC will not provide the reprieve from prosecution which African leaders seek.