Psst, Venezuela — About Those Aggression Amendments…

As I’ve noted before, the jurisdictional regime at the ICC for aggression is exceedingly narrow. In essence, the Court will have jurisdiction over an act of aggression only in the following situation:

1. The aggressor is a member of the Court, has ratified the aggression amendments, and has not opted out of the Court’s jurisdiction.

2. The victim is a member of the Court and has ratified the aggression amendments.

I’m not trying to defend Maduro, but Venezuela might want to think about rather quickly ratifying the amendments. Doing so would not protect the state from a US invasion — something the US is rather good at in Latin American and that the Trump administration has quite pointedly refused to rule out — or from an invasion by Colombia or Brazil. But it would at least take Guyana, Argentina, Chile, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, Panama, and El Salvador off the board, given that all seven have ratified the amendments and not opted out.

To be sure, it is unclear whether the ICC would even accept ratification by Maduro at this point. Enough states have recognized Juan Guaidó as the President of Venezuela to call into question Maduro’s ability to speak for the state. But that’s a legal issue for another day…