ICC Prosecutor poised to take on Russia as well as U.S.

Yesterday I discussed how the Senate's "Torture Report" may add impetus to a preliminary investigation of the United States by the International Criminal Court. Yet U.S. is not the only major power with an emerging ICC problem. The ICC prosecutor recently announced that she may "soon" open a full investigation into Russian crimes in occupied Georgia (Remember Georgia? Russia grabbed it before it took Crimea before it took eastern Ukraine.)

A showdown between The Hague and Moscow would be no small thing. The latter is almost certain to not cooperate, and without that, the ICC is ineffectual. In a new contribution to the European Journal of International Law's blog, I analyze the parameters of the possible inquiry, which oddly omits several categories of possible crimes, from disproportionate force by both sides, to settlement activity by Russia.