Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court

The peculiarities of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court – a permanent judicial body established in accordance with the Rome Statute, adopted in 1998 – have been analized in the article. The objective and subjective features of “the most serious crimes of international significance”, such as genocide, crime against humanity, war crimes committed after July 1, 2002, have been studied. The conditions for the International Criminal Court to acquire jurisdiction over the crime of aggression, which it received on the basis of the Kampala Additions to the Rome Statute in 2010, have been considered. The necessity of expanding the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court by conventional crimes, interpretation of war crimes, crimes against humanity is substantiated. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the International Criminal Court complements national judicial systems and joins when a state is unwilling or unable to initiate criminal proceedings. Such a system, based on the principle of complementarity, imposes on the state the obligation to prosecute those who have committed an international crime. The criteria for determining the measure of punishment and their forms are stated. It is concluded that the problematic issues of the court's functioning include the specification of the form of guilt of crimes falling under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, the qualification of international crimes, the absence of international crimes of international terrorism, ecocide, crimes with biological weapons, the unwillingness of states to ratify the Rome Statute.