Universal jurisdiction makes since in a world where national boundaries are becoming more blurred as people have the ability to travel more, there is more international trade, and nations are more interdependent than ever before in history. One nation’s laws should not supersedeanother’s’ therefore, and International Criminal Court makes sense for instances of crimes that violate international policies or when crimes involve multiple nations. An international criminal court is the only system that can effectively handle crimes of war as well as crimes against humanity .
There are conflicting opinions about the importance of the roles of the states versus the need for a set of international laws. The traditionalists, those that support strong state or national governments, stress the need that states are involved only to the extent that they chose to be. Globalists, or those that support a strong system of international law, stress the importance of a global legal authority as the world becomes more interdependent and nations are more interdependent on each other .
It is important to have some type of international governing body to handle areas such as crimes that occur during periods of war and also when there are crimes against humanity. In these two particular areas, it is the basic principles of decency and humanity that are important, not whether or not a nation’s government believes that it has the right to do unto other human beings acts which the international community conceives as immoral or unacceptable under any conditions. It is true that there needs to be a way to ensure that the International Criminal Court does not become too powerful, especially against nations that have a weak government in place. However, such a system is needed to protect the basic rights of humans throughout the world.
Works Cited
Friedan, Lake, and Schultz. World Politics: Interests, Interactions, Institutions. 2nd edition. W. W. Norton & Company, n.d. Print.
Roth, Kenneth. "The Case for Universal Jurisdiction." Foreign Affairs (2001). Web. 23 March 2013.
