ABSTRACT
The establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is a promising example of the move toward international law for global citizenship, but it also serves as a paradigm of the tension between selfinterested nation states and global citizenship. When the ICC was first established in March 2003 to replace the ad hoc tribunals developed to deal with atrocities in Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, it was supported by 139 countries. Few would disagree with the importance of having a tribunal for the 1994 atrocities in Rwanda, and it would seem that establishing a
formal international mechanism for dealing with genocide and similar crimes against humanity is both morally and politically expedient.
