International Justice and the Postcolonial Condition

This article moves beyond the reductive debate whether the International Criminal Court is the “Court for Africa,” targeting Africans. Placing the ICC in its historical, larger context and within global politics, I argue that international law and the theory and practice of international criminal justice lie on foundations that consecrated the West as the sole trustees of law, justice, and morality. To that extent, and drawing from IR, postcolonial and international law literatures, I contend that the postcolonial condition is the one in which the globally disenfranchised navigate the international justice system, which still consecrates the West as incapable of committing criminal acts.