Spaces and Places of International Criminal Justice

Abstract

Abstract The chapter draws on spatial sociologists to critically map out ‘where’ international criminal justice takes place, and how it is shaped by a multiplicity of scales, geographies, and sites. First, the chapter focuses on how international criminal justice is visibly and materially located, recognizing The Hague as a hub in the global networks of global justice-making—a ‘global city’ of justice-making. Yet, it is related to and dependent on other spaces, such as those where the crimes were committed. Uganda is one of these sites. There however, ‘justice’ is almost invisible and, from a view from The Hague, at a standstill. The disconnect between the metropole and periphery of global justice-making is also apparent in the virtual spaces of international criminal justice, as the chapter moves on to identify and discuss social media as a crucial space of global justice-making. While the internet is a major ground for debate, international criminal justice is promoted and legitimized globally through social media. Delinked from the nation state, the chapter suggests that social media is but one strategy of building constituency for international criminal justice. Another is the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) meetings that work as an annual ritual of international criminal justice invoking cosmopolitan images and justifications, yet in a space of increasing political friction. The chapter’s spatial analysis teases out the north-south and the metropole/periphery divide in international criminal justice, while situating the transnational networks of NGOs as part of its geography of power.