The International Criminal Court: Mapping the Politics of Myth Construction on the "Road to Rome"

Abstract

This thesis investigates the reasons why it took seventy-four years for the International Criminal Court to be officially established in Rome in 1998 after the idea for the Court was first mooted in 1924. It is argued that the processes of myth-construction were pivotal in contributing to the Court’s enduring identity crisis throughout this period. Based on evidence pertinent to this inquiry, the thesis challenges the conventional histories that frame the Court’s evolution within a teleological development of international criminal law. The jurists, Dr Hugh H.L. Bellot (1860–1928) and Sir Hersch Lauterpacht (1897–1960) are key sources in supporting the ultimate hypothesis proposed here – that is, the recent perceptions of the Court’s genesis within the late nineteenth century Red Cross movement originated from the 1998 Rome Conference. This strategic myth was orchestrated with the chief purpose of unifying the interests of national delegates and international Civil Society by suppressing any future political doubt of the Court’s humanitarian function.