The Need for Balance: The Pursuit of International Justice Versus Stable Inter-State Relations

Finding measures to legitimately circumvent immunity ratione personae so as to evade the use o f Article 98 is not an easy task. What makes this endeavour particularly arduous is the fact that states are the key players in international law. Indeed it has been argued that absolute ‘power in the world is consolidated in the state, which is independent o f all other states’ and where ‘states disagree in their inability to harmonize their wills, war occurs’.1 Hegel’s words ring true if one imagines the destabilizing effect on international relations if the incumbent leader o f a sovereign state was arrested and tried in another state.