ROME STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

The Doctrine of Incorporation; The Doctrine of Transformation.

T h e doctrine of incorporation means that the rules of international law for part of
the law of the land and no legislative action is required to make them applicable to a country.
The Philippines follows his doctrine, because Section 2, Article II of the Constitution states
that the Philippines adopt the generally accepted principles of international law as part of the
law of the land.

The doctrine of transformation on the other hand requires that an international law principle
be transformed into domestic law through a constitutional mechanism, such as local
legislation. (Pharmaceutical and Health Care Association of the Philippines v. Duque, G.R.
No. 173034, October 9, 2007). The transformation theory is applied in the Philippines
through treaty-making power of the President. Through this power, rules and principles
embodied in a treaty in force would be transformed into Philippine Law and shall
become valid and effective upon the concurrence of 2/3 of all members of the Senate.

Jurisdictional rules under the International Criminal Court.

The Roman Statute provides for the following jurisdiction:

1. ICC shall have the power to exercise jurisdiction over persons for the most serious
crimes of international concern, covering the crime of genocide, crimes against
humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression as defined in the Statute. (Article
5, Rome Statute; Pimentel, Jr. V. Office of the Executive Secretary, G.R.
No.158088, July 6, 2005)

2. The Court shall have jurisdiction over the person of an accused only if the
crime was committed in the territory of a State a party to the Rome Statute or if
the accused is a national of a State that is party to the Rome Statute. (Article 12,
Rome Statute)

3. A person shall not be criminally liable under the Rome Statute unless the conduct in
question constitutes, at the time it takes place, a crime within the jurisdiction of the
Court and after the entry into force of the Rome Statute. (Article 11 and 22, Rome
Statute)
 Salient Features of the Rome Statute:

The Court will act only as a court of last resort. This means that the Court acts only in
exceptional cases, where a country has failed to bring justice because it is unwilling or
unable to investigate and prosecute those who have the highest responsibility for the
most serious crimes of concern to the international community.

In brief, the salient features of the treaty are as follows:

 Principle of complementarity. Under the Statute Article 17, the Court will deem as
inadmissible a case that is already being investigated or prosecuted by a state that has
jurisdiction over it, unless the state is unwilling or is unable genuinely to carry out the
investigation or prosecution.

 Subject matter of Court jurisdiction:

1. International crimes provided for, under customary international humanitarian
Law;
2. Genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression.
A. Persons are individually responsible, while minors and states are not.
B. Under the Statute Article 27, official capacity is irrelevant. The accused
may be a head of state, member of the national legislature, or
government official. Possible exemptions are agreements between
sending and receiving states, such as the Visiting Forces Agreement and
other status of forces agreements with other states.
C. Under the Statute Article 28, the military commander assumes command
responsibility for crimes committed by forces under his command and
control, under the following requirements:
c1. The commander knew or should have known that the forces
were committing or about to commit such crimes; and
c2. The commander fails to take all necessary and reasonable
measures within his power to prevent their commission.
 Article 5
Crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court

1. The jurisdiction of the Court shall be limited to the most serious crimes of concern
to the international community as a whole. The Court has jurisdiction in accordance with
this Statute with respect to the following crimes:

(a) The crime of genocide;

(b) Crimes against humanity;

(c) War crimes;

(d) The crime of aggression.

2. The Court shall exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression once a provision is
adopted in accordance with articles 121 and 123 defining the crime and setting out the
conditions under which the Court shall exercise jurisdiction with respect to this crime. Such
a provision shall be consistent with the relevant provisions of the Charter of the United
Nations.

Article 6
Genocide

For the purpose of this Statute, "genocide" means any of the following acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about
its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

 Article 7
Crimes against humanity

1. For the purpose of this Statute, "crime against humanity" means any of the following
acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any
civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:

(a) Murder;

(b) Extermination;

(c) Enslavement;

(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;

(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of

fundamental rules of international law;

(f) Torture;

(g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced

sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;

(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial,

national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds
that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in
connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the
jurisdiction of the Court;

(i) Enforced disappearance of persons - means the arrest, detention or

abduction of persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of,
a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that
deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of
those persons, with the intention of removing them from the protection of the
law for a prolonged period of time.

(j) The crime of apartheid;

(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering,
or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.