U.S. pulls out of international court

[Ar-Cunin]

This subject came in the thread: The U.S. as seen from a world perspective, politically, Your Opinions please.

But I thought it could use a seperate thread.

Here goes:

Now we can add another thing the US goverment won't be a part of: [img]graemlins/idontwanna.gif[/img]

The permanent international Court on warcrimes and genecide (I Think that what it is called)

Reason: It could be used by 'hostile' contries to press frivolous charges against americans

Go figure [img]graemlins/nono.gif[/img]

[ 05-07-2002, 04:02 PM: Message edited by: Ar-Cunin ]

[Chewbacca]

Yep, I hate to be a citizen of the only country to abstain from such a noble concept but some of the reasons for backing out make sense. Such a body needs a check and balance.

Its kinda hypocritical that although we dont extend our constituional rights to foriegn detainees in our own country, its reasonable that we expect a world court to recognize our citizens constiutonal rights beyond U.S. borders. Dont get me wrong, I'm for equitable judicial rights world-wide.

I think the issue needs to be renegotiated and when this permanent court come to be, the first Americans tried should be those that brainchilded the carpet bombing of Loas during the Vietnam conflict, True war crimes were commited by Americans over there and the stink went strait back to the top.

[Azred]

Chewbacca is right. There is no appeal from decisions made by this court, as far as I can tell given the information I can find about it. The risk of wrongfully convicting someone based on insufficient/improper evidence is too great--renegotiate the treaty or redesign the court to have an appeal process first.
Also, where does the authority of this court end? Can two countries have a skirmish and then the loser bring charges against the winner before this court, even if no war crimes exist? What fail-safes exist against frivolous suits? Furthermore, how could you keep international relations away from this court--would sentiment towards the victims of suspected war crimes bias the desicions? To be truly non-biased the constituents of the court would have to renounce all citizenships; I highly doubt this would be desirable to them.
Like many things, this court seems like a good idea on paper but not so great in practice. However, I will keep an open mind and do a little more research before deciding.

[Arvon]

The reason the US pulled out is that the world court violates many of the provisions and guarentees of the US constitution. Also there are several civil right violated.