International Judicial Monitor
Published by the International Judicial Academy, Washington, D.C., with assistance from the
American Society of International Law

Summer 2009 Issue
 

In Review:
New Publications on International and Comparative Law

 

The Sun Climbs Slow
By: Erna Paris. Seven Stories Press, New York. 2008

The Sun Climbs Slow By: James G. Apple, Editor-in-Chief, International Judicial Monitor and President, International Judicial Academy

Although Erna Paris’ book is about international criminal law and the International Criminal Court (ICC), part of it is in fact an indictment of the policies of the United States government, not only for its absence in leadership on those two specific subjects, and not only for its refusal to participate in the former and to support the latter, but also for its attempts, especially in the early years of the twenty-first century, to obstruct and possibly destroy the ICC.

The first page of the book contains four quotes. A quote from former President Jimmy Carter is bracketed by two quotes from Jewish scholars of antiquity and one from Kofi Annan, immediate past Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The quote from President Carter is instructive about the United States’ past commitment to justice and the rule of law in general and about what its commitment should be to the idea of an international rule of law that embraces the world and international institutions that support that law, including the International Criminal Court. He wrote:

The United States was the first nation founded on the bedrock principle of justice and equality for all before the law. It is wrong for us now to insist that this principle cannot be applied to all inhabitants of this earth. Just as our forbearers did, we should build institutions that will serve as a haven for all against the arbitrary exercise of power.

In her prelude Paris focuses on two “remarkable” and “extraordinary” events that occurred during the last decade of the 20th Century: 1) the end of the Cold War resulting in the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the United States as the only superpower; and 2) the creation of a new “international court of international criminal justice.” In these two events Paris finds the source of the tension and acrimony that has surrounded the creation of the ICC. Her book is partially an examination of these two phenomena and how the resulting tensions have played out in the five years since the ICC came into being.

Paris begins her narrative with a vivid description of the inauguration of the ICC on March 11, 2003 in The Hague. The portrait of that event that she paints in the first chapter, one of jubilance and high expectations, is offset in the second chapter by the somber question: “Why was the government of the United States so viscerally opposed to an international court that was mandated to prosecute the worst crimes known to humanity?” Her answer:

For the quarrel between the US and the ICC was merely the most recent outbreak of an endemic dispute whose roots can be traced to the origins of human society, to the ongoing struggle between the interests of the powerful and the rule of law, to the continuing clash between the politics of power and the moral constraints of justice. The hyperpower and the tribunal had emerged in a single historical moment at the end of the twentieth century. Like boxers in a ring, each had much to gain over the long term should the match go their way, and much to lose should it not.

This second chapter, appropriately titled “Roots and Tendrils” is an exercise in historical perspective, always the basis of true understanding of almost any subject. Paris goes back to “the origins of human society,” starting with the Greek historian Thucydides and his History of the Peloponnesian War. She then relates the concept of “might makes right” that originated in ancient Greece to its more modern expression that has arisen in the United States since the fall of the Soviet Union. It is a political position that is embraced by the movement known as neoconservatism, where the most vociferous opponents of the ICC can be found.

Following that section is a chapter devoted to a discussion of the “neo-con” culture and how that political perspective has clashed with post-World War II efforts by the United States to establish a new international order based on universal aims of peace and justice. The final two paragraphs of the third chapter set the stage for the fourth. Those two paragraphs focus on the extraordinary efforts of one man, John Bolton, unfortunately cloaked with enormous power within the U.S. State Department as Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, to oppose the ICC. Included is a reference to Bolton’s well known “unsigning” of the previous assent of the U.S. government, under President William Clinton, to the Rome Statute creating the ICC, and Bolton’s public description of his immense satisfaction with that action, which he described as “the happiest day of my government service.”

In the next chapter, titled “The Man at the State Department,” Paris chronicles Bolton’s actions in opposing most, if not all, of U.S. treaty obligations, as well as the whole concept of international law. She describes Bolton’s “multi-pronged governmental strategy to maim, marginalize and (with luck) kill the International Criminal Court.” She specifically covers Bolton’s plan to cripple the ICC with Article 98 Agreements, “reciprocal agreements with individual countries in which both parties promised never to send one another’s nationals to the International Criminal Court.” The inducement for countries to sign was easy and harsh – if the country refused to sign, all U.S. foreign aid would be ended. Paris notes that by December, 2006, 102 countries had succumbed to this bullying tactic and signed Article 98 agreements with the United States.

The theme of the next chapter, titled “The Activist, the U.N. Advisor, and the West Point Professor,” is countering the actions of John Bolton. It is an account of the work of three U.S. citizens who have approached the issue of the International Criminal Court from completely different perspectives. They are: Michael Ramer, Director of the New York-based Citizens for Constitutional Rights; Cherif Bassiouni, professor of international law at DePaul Law School and president of the International Law Human Rights Institute, both located in Chicago; and Gary Solis, professor of the laws of war at the United States Military Academy at West Point and one of the world’s foremost experts on war crimes. Each of them provides a distinct and refreshing contrast of views about the ICC and related issues to the positions of John Bolton and the neocoservatives.

An intriguing chapter in the book focuses on the author’s interview with, and impressions of, Robert McNamara, a man who has come to embody all of the mistakes of America’s war in Vietnam. The chapter that follows, “What Robert McNamara Didn’t Know,” is a discussion of how powerful states and the leaders who guide them often choose not to learn about historical and moral efforts to restrain the powerful states in their relations with other countries.

Three chapters of the book address the history of international criminal tribunals, (e.g. the Nuremberg Tribunal), the war in Bosnia and the resulting creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, while “The Making of the ICC” is a description of how the Court has functioned in the five years since its founding.

The final full chapter of the book is perhaps the most important in that it deals with “The Moral Landscape,” which again takes up the age-old conflicts between power, law and justice, the choices that the world must make with respect to each one in the coming years of the twenty-first century, and the moral issues that are involved in these choices.

Erna Paris is an exceptional journalist who has written an exceptional book. Although the style is non-legal and non-technical and thus very readable, it is a work of enormous breadth and thoroughness. The Sun Climbs Slow is a book for the common citizen as well as the judge, the lawyer, the politician and the statesman. Erna Paris has done a great service, not only to the international community, but also to all persons everywhere who have an interest in the rule of law and peace in the world, by exploring in depth, the history, the players with opposing views, the moral issues, and the alternative paths to the future that are at stake amidst the controversies surrounding the International Criminal Court.

ASIl & International Judicial AcademyInternational Judicial Monitor
© 2009 – The International Judicial Academy with assistance from the American Society of International Law.

Editor: James G. Apple.
IJM welcomes comments, suggestions, and submissions.
Please contact the IJM editors at IJM@asil.org.