Cynicism comes especially easy to international law, where the longest-running debates still parse whether or not international law and institutions even “matter” in the first place. Indeed, as a professor of international law for nearly 20 years, I confess I’ve brought many a student’s idealistic dreams of crafting a more just and principled world crashing down upon the harsh rocks of realpolitik.
So it is not surprising that the arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges from the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been met with raised eyebrows. Commentators note—correctly—that since Russia never ratified the 1998 Rome Statute creating the court and does not recognize its jurisdiction, the ICC has no mechanism to force Russia to surrender Putin to The Hague, and even if it did, Russia also wields a veto on the United Nations Security Council that would ensure its president never sees the inside of a courtroom, regardless of the abduction and deportation of some 16,000 Ukrainian children.
