International Criminal Justice: Law and Practice from the Rome Statute to Its Review

This book is an edited collection comprising a variety of essays, some dealing directly with the subject matter of the title (i.e. the International Criminal Court (ICC)), whereas others do so only indirectly. The object of the editor seems to have been the exposition of the law and politics of the ICC, but it is not abundantly clear if he was envisaging a detailed study of the ICC – in the form of a quasi-commentary – or instead a collection of expert essays, without any particular thread. In my opinion, only the former has been achieved. Edited collections constitute a dangerous species and one immersed with significant practical difficulties. A successful collection requires a coherent theme and an organisation which every contributor must follow without deviation. If contributors are simply asked to write what is convenient for them, absent a consistent format, it is only natural that the final product will turn out to be simply a collection of random essays that are not held together by a coherent theme. T