ABSTRACT
This chapter clarifies where the International Criminal Court can find internationally recognised human rights. It begins by determining whether they can take account of domestic law and examines the issue of international soft law. The qualifier ‘internationally recognized’ under Article of the Rome Statute suggests a certain degree of acceptance by the subjects of international law, i.e. not all human rights are internationally recognized. While nobody denies that ‘internationally recognized human rights’ include international hard law, the status of international soft law is debatable. The stringent requirements of Article – ‘must be consistent’ and ‘internationally recognized’ – are not readily suitable for moral, religious, utilitarian or other factors. Still, judicial recourse to the circumstances of the conclusion of the Rome Statute is possible by exploring other avenues, notably the customary methods of treaty interpretation as reflected in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.
