Ratione Temporis Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court

Jurisdiction of adhoc International criminal tribunals covers the crimes committed before their establishment. But the procedural and substantive rules of the statute of International Criminal Court is an indication of its sole Jurisdiction and the exercise of its rules over the crimes committed after entering into the force of the statute. While ICC may exercise its jurisdiction over the crimes committed in the territory or by the nationals of a state after joining to and entering into force of the statute for that state, it is only the Security Council who may without any time restriction refer to the ICC prosecutor all situations concerning crimes within the jurisdiction of the court which have been committed after the statute entered into force. Regardless of the explicit provisions of the statute pertaining to the time of the exercise of the jurisdiction of the court, situations may arise which calls for arguments over the commencnent date for the court's jurisdiction. Some perovisions in the statute limits the time, suspends, or even ceases the court's right of the exercise of its jurisdiction. Occurrence of some continuous and compound offences committed before the statute become enforceable, restriction of exercise of the court's jurisdiction pertaining to war crimes for seven years, feasibility of retroactivity of the court's jurisdiction in cases where a state ratione personae accepts adhoc jurisdiction of the ICC, absence of time limitation regarding the right of the U.N. Security Council to request supension of the prosecution, state party withdrawal and finally impossibility of the exercise of ICC's jurisdiction regarding the crime of aggression till a definition of this crime be given by the Security Council are the main discussions in this article.