Ending impunity or entrenching impunity? International criminal law and the political economy of late capitalism

Despite a lacklustre record and charges of political and racial bias against its preeminent institution, international criminal law (ICL) continues to be celebrated as a suitable response, and even remedy, to the major forms of violence and destruction that plague the modern era. However, in focusing on the culpability of individuals, this chapter argues, ICL suffers a systematic blindness to the political-economic roots of violence. A myopic concern with the individual ignores and removes from scrutiny the structural causes of atrocity rooted in, amongst other forces, the political economy of late capitalism. If ICL's growing stature marks an end to individual impunity as its advocates maintain, it also risks reproducing, or even entrenching, other forms of impunity.