ABSTRACT
The principle of complementarity is a fundamental idea which permeates the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for reasons which can be considered practical, legal, and even philosophical. Practical because complementarity is an intelligent way to keep away the bulk of cases which might reach the ICC if that principle did not exist while, at the same time, the Court is keeping all the cards in its favour, since where the State is objectively unable to deal with or is not virtuous in its intentions towards a case or cases, the ICC will take it or them in its own hands. It should not, furthermore, be forgotten that the Statute is a conventional text, an international treaty which has been negotiated by States, and in that legal context, complementarity was a common denominator which some may consider lower than desirable but on which everyone, or as many as possible, could agree at the time. From a philosophical perspective, on the other hand, the existence of complementarity is justified by the need to assert the primacy of national jurisdiction on a subject so deeply identified with national sovereignty as criminal justice is.
