U.S. public support for the international criminal court: do constitutional considerations matter?

Abstract

ABSTRACTPublic opinion studies concerning the International Criminal Court show that a majority of the U.S. public supports the ICC and U.S. participation with the Court. Yet, such studies provide no information to participants about the lack of protections that are otherwise provided to U.S. citizens by the U.S. Constitution. Given this, the purpose of this study was to assess if support for the ICC varies according to whether individuals are informed of its lack of constitutional protections. To investigate this, a study was conducted with several hundred individuals where the language used to describe the ICC was experimentally manipulated. Results indicate that participants assigned to a condition where the description of the ICC included language describing its lack of constitutional protections were less likely to support the establishment of the ICC and U.S. participation in the Court, while is more consistent with the U.S. government’s official position on the ICC.