Justice Department Rejects International Criminal Court Jurisdiction Over U.S. Persons

In a letter this week addressed to the President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote that the Department of Justice rejects any assertion of jurisdiction by the ICC over Americans.

The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute and has never consented to the ICC's authority. As a matter of international law, a treaty cannot bind a non-consenting country. Accordingly, the ICC has no jurisdiction over Americans - anywhere in the world - and any attempt to assert such authority is illegitimate, unlawful, and a direct affront to the sovereignty of the United States.

"The ICC has acted in an increasingly lawless and illegitimate manner," writes Blanche in his letter to Judge Tomoko Akane, President of the International Criminal Court. "Its record of selective enforcement and credible allegations of internal misconduct raise serious doubts about the ICC's impartiality, credibility, and legitimacy."

In 2002, Congress passed the American Servicemembers' Protection Act which expressly repudiates ICC jurisdiction over U.S. persons, including U.S. servicemembers, government officials, and civilians. The statute prohibits cooperation with the ICC and authorizes the President to use all means necessary and appropriate to secure the release of any U.S. person detained pursuant to any ICC warrant or request.

Going forward, the United States will not cooperate with any ICC investigation, inquiry, summons, or proceeding. This includes the extradition or transfer any U.S. person to the ICC. The Department will also oppose any effort by other countries to do so.

"The Department of Justice is fully committed to defending our Nation's sovereignty and protecting the rights of U.S. persons against unlawful international overreach," the letter continues. "Our Constitution - the supreme law of the land - vests the judicial power of the United States in its own courts, and our legal system is the envy of the world. The United States will not subordinate the liberty and security of our people to a foreign tribunal in The Hague with no accountability to any electorate or fidelity to the Constitution."