Addressing the Accountability Gap: An International Anti-Corruption Court

Grand corruption – the abuse of public power for private gain by a nation’s leaders – is increasingly recognized as a major international problem. The 189 States Parties to the UN Convention Against Corruption are required to have laws criminalizing several forms of corruption, but in many places corrupt leaders control the police, the prosecutors, and the courts, ensuring impunity for their crimes. A growing coalition of governments and civil society supports the creation of an International Anti-Corruption Court that can hold corrupt leaders and their co-conspirators accountable when national governments are unwilling or unable to do so. The roundtable will begin with brief answer the questions: What are the consequences of corruption? What are the gaps in the existing international framework for combating corruption? The participants will then outline the proposal for an International Anti-Corruption Court and the new international campaign to create it. The roundtable will conclude with a discussion of some of the key legal issues, to be reflected in a draft Statute of the Court, that need to be resolved to ensure that an IACC is an efficient and effective institution: How to define jurisdiction of the court? How to handle asset recovery? How to deal with immunities? How to deal with arresting and extraditing individuals? How to organize and shape the mandate of the prosecutor? How to handle evidence gathering and compulsory process?