27 Dec ICL Hits It Big in Hollywood!
I often wonder, as I sit happily ensconced in my ivory tower, what the world of international criminal law looks like to the average American. I now have my answer, courtesy of Rush Hour 3, perhaps the first Hollywood movie since Judgment at Nuremberg to revolve around the fast-paced, sexy world of ICL.
The opening scene of the film takes place at the World Criminal Court, located in downtown Los Angeles. For some reason, the court doesn’t actually look like a court — it looks like the Security Council, complete with representatives from all of the world’s countries. The Chairman of the WCC is at the dais, briefing the WCC’s members about the world’s greatest threat — the Chinese Triads. The Triads, he explains, are a $50 billion enterprise with 500,000 members in 100 different countries. Their crimes are legion: extortion, drugs, sex, slavery. It’s up to the WCC to stop them — so the Chairman appoints the Chinese Ambassador to oversee the Court’s investigative efforts. The Chinese Ambassador takes the stage, says he knows the whereabouts of the leader of the Triads, who some believe does not exist… and is nearly assassinated seconds later.
I’m not quite sure what to make of Rush Hour 3‘s fictional world of international criminal law, but its World Criminal Court seems to have a number of advantages over the ICC: (1) Los Angeles has much better weather than the Hague. (2) The WCC has a really, really nice building. (3) Because the WCC is in L.A., it’s reasonable to assume that the U.S. is a member. (4) China is obviously a member, as well. (5) No one seems particularly disturbed by the idea of a “World” criminal court, language normally associated by the extreme right with black helicopters and ZOG. (6) The WCC has admirably broad subject-matter jurisdiction, including transnational crimes like drug trafficking that the ICC can’t touch. (7) The WCC clearly has investigative and enforcement powers of which the ICC can only dream. And (8) the WCC matters enough to warrant an assassination.
On the down side, sex appears to be an international crime and the WCC doesn’t seem to actually prosecute anyone. I’m personally opposed to criminalizing sex, even though I have long admired the work of Catharine MacKinnon. (Perhaps she is a WCC judge?) But the absence of trials may be a good thing — anyone even passingly acquainted with the international variety knows they are deathly boring.
I haven’t finished watching the movie, so I don’t know if the Triad leaders will be summarily executed or given a fair trial. I’ll report back later…
lol, hilarious.
Also, the somewhat bizarre French driver struck a chord with me: The truth is I am a driver. Nothing more. This is my destiny. I will never know what it’s like to be an american, never know what it feels like to kill with no reason. Perhaps the film’s producers realized the majority of the gross would likely come from outside the U.S.
this is great. I had no idea that these comedies are creating whole international instutitions, I wonder if they had any academic “advisors” for the script writers.