The Exercise of Prosecutorial Discretion at the International Criminal Court

With the ICC’s unprecedented scope of jurisdiction and limited resources

comes the need to select situations and cases that the Prosecutor wishes to pursue. As the Prosecutor selects her situations and cases, she constantly makes choices, aff orded to her by the statutory discretion she enjoys as a Prosecutor. The purpose of this study is to investigate three aspects of the Prosecutor’s discretion:

What is the extent of the Prosecutor’s discretion in pursuing individual

situations and cases?

How much does the Prosecutor adhere to and further the objectives of the ICC in the exercise of her discretion?

To what degree should the Prosecutor use policy considerations in selecting situations and cases to pursue?



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