ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the production of the victim before the International Criminal Court (ICC) through its institutional practices and technologies of inscription. It illustrates how the abstract victim is invoked to shore up the authority of international criminal law, while the corporeal body is subjected to a calculus that will include or exclude based upon categories that appear arbitrary from outside the legal frame. The Trust Fund for Victims was established through the court's founding statute as a complementary institution that would support programs to address harms arising from crimes under its jurisdiction. The chapter considers efforts within the field of international criminal law to inscribe and transform the experience of suffering into legally recognisable categories. International criminal law now forms part of the global humanitarian continuum, with its attendant political dream of saving lives and alleviating suffering. More than forms of transitional justice such as truth commissions, however, international criminal law is subject to juridical and jurisdictional constraints.
