Journal of International Criminal Justice Advance Access published online on June 5, 2009
Journal of International Criminal Justice, doi:10.1093/jicj/mqp018
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How Do States Join the International Criminal Court?
The Implementation of the Rome Statute in Japan
* Assistant Professor of Government and of Social Studies, Harvard University. An Abe Fellowship of the Social Science Research Council and the Japan Foundation awarded to Jens Meierhenrich made the field research for this article possible. Meierhenrich conducted interviews and additional field research while a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at the University of Tokyo in 2007. He gratefully acknowledges the hospitality of Minoru Nakazato, Yasuaki Onuma, Yuji Iwasawa, and Koji Teraya. For comments, suggestions, and conversations, both authors thank Takeshi Akune, Nisuke Ando, Shuichi Furuya, Takeshi Hanai, Yasushi Higashizawa, Satoko Ikeda, Tadashi Inuzuka, Tomoaki Ishigaki, Takahiro Katsumi, Claus Kreß, Yasushi Masaki, Akira Mayama, Mayumi Moriyama, Shinya Murase, Osamu Niikura, Motoo Noguchi, Hiroshi Oe, and Akira Takagi. Kiyoko Sandanbatake, Sunao Takao, and Haruno Yumioka provided expert research assistance. [jmeierhenrich{at}gov.harvard.edu]
** Professor of Law, Mie University. [kokeiko{at}human.mie-u.ac.jp]
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Abstract |
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Against the background of Japan's long-anticipated implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 2007, this article analyses the legislative implications of treaty accession. One of the causes of the accession delay in Japan — nearly 10 years passed between the government's participation in the adoption of the Rome Statute and its implementation thereof — was the challenge of aligning the conflicting imperatives of domestic and international law. This article delineates these conflicting imperatives, reconstructing the deliberations over procedural and substantive law that attended the drafting of implementing legislation in Japan. We demonstrate in our analysis that unlike most other countries who joined the ICC community as States Parties, Japan had to overcome particularly formidable constitutional and legislative hurdles before membership in the permanent international court could become a possibility. Among other things, the implementation of the Rome Statute required a renegotiation, in key respects, of the fundamental principle upon which Japan's post-World War II foreign and domestic policy rested, namely the renunciation of war and the culture of antimilitarism that is enshrined in Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan.