Edinburgh Napier University

  This work examines the development of international criminal law, and by default the
International Criminal Court, towards the protection of the individual. The link to State planning,
policy or officialdom appears to be waning and the discourse has shifted from conceptual
discussions of the Court’s jurisdiction to the best means of protecting individuals. This has
naturally involved the cross-pollination of international criminal law by the associated disciplines
of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. This has entailed a shift
towards prosecuting those who are guilty of mass atrocities regardless of whether they are State
officials, with the majority of the defendants before the Court having an affiliation to a rebel group
of non-state actors. There are also further investigations in respect of situations which would not
traditionally be identified as armed conflicts. Thus international criminal law retains its appeal for
academics and further ensconces its place in public international law through the sharing of
concepts with international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and it
reciprocates through providing a forum for the prosecution of the most serious abuses of
individual dignity.