By Stephen W. Houghton II
It is “shameful” that the United States
is not part of the International Criminal Court, according to Henry T. King,
former Nuremberg prosecutor.
King, a professor of law at Case Western Reserve University, spoke on Jackson,
the Nuremberg trials and the International Criminal Court.
King is in town as part of a three-day celebration this week of the work of
Justice Robert H. Jackson and the American prosecution team at the Nuremberg
war crimes trials. The event, sponsored by the Robert H. Jackson Center for
Justice, began Tuesday with the talk by King at the Lenna Theater of Jamestown
Community College.
The former prosecutor spoke about the legacy of Jackson and the importance
of the United States becoming part of the International Criminal Court.
He said prior war crimes trials at Nuremberg, The Hague and in Rwanda were
ad hoc, ending when the last acused person within their jurisdiction had been
tried.
King said the ICC would be a standing court that would provide a permanent
framework for punishing war crimes.
He praised the charter of the ICC for including “aggressive war”
as a crime, in contrast to the trials now taking place at The Hague for the
former Yugoslavia, and the Rwanda trials, which are only prosecuting war crimes
and crimes against humanity.
“The ICC should act as a deterrent to future aggression,” King
said.
King said it is “shameful” that the United States is not involved
in the ICC. He said that this was exempting the United States from the standard
it held others to at Nuremberg.
The ICC and other treaties which establish the rule of law in international
affairs, should be embraced by the United States because the rule of law is
what made America great, King said.
He said the fact that the goals of ICC are idealistic should not keep the
United States from supporting it.
“We have to keep our eyes on the stars,” King said. “There
are three kinds of dreams: there are dreams that wither in contact with reality,
there are dreams that fade in time and there are dreams that become reality
in a world transformed.