ABSTRACT
The story of the Rome Conference has been told and written about extensively since the adoption of the Statute. Since the end of the Conference, however, a number of myths have emerged about what happened in Rome. Many, if not all, of these are devoid of any factual basis. To a large extent, especially with respect to the procedural parts of the Statute, that work-plan functioned smoothly. The various working groups met, informal negotiations were arranged and the plethora of square brackets in the Draft Statute gradually disappeared. The Bureau had no choice but to act, first through the tabling of its Discussion Paper, then the preparation of a Bureau Proposal and ultimately the submission to the Conference of the final package. A second myth, somewhat related to the first, is that the rushed frenzy to adopt a Statute produced a flawed instrument and resulted in adoption by vote rather than general agreement.
