ABSTRACT
The sovereignty of nations must, of course, be respected. But, properly understood, nations derive their sovereignty–their legitimacy–from the consent of the governed. Thus, Slobodan Milosevic can hardly claim sovereignty over Kosovo when he has murdered Kosovars and piled their bodies into mass graves. Nor can Fidel Castro or Saddam Hussein hide behind phony claims of sovereignty while they oppress their peoples. The effort to establish a United Nations International Criminal Court is a case in point. Consider: the Rome treaty purports to hold American citizens under its jurisdiction–even though the United States has neither signed nor ratified the treaty. Put another way, it claims sovereign authority over American citizens without their consent. Americans distrust concepts like the International Criminal Court and claims by the UN to be the "sole source of legitimacy on the use of force", because we have a profound distrust of accumulated power.
