Testing Complementarity: Sudan’s Local War Crimes Courts

This on-the-ground report from Sudan provides a brief but interesting glimpse at Sudan’s effort to avoid transferring defendants to the International Criminal Court. Sudan has created special tribunals to try individuals of suspected war crimes. If its domestic processes are deemed sufficient by the ICC, then the ICC cannot exercise jurisdiction over alleged war crimes in Sudan. This has always been one of the fundamental principles of the ICC, but the very fuzziness of the concept has also been the source of criticism from ICC opponents. Here is the first chance for the ICC to give the concept some more substance.