Media mischaracterized federal court decision on ICC sanctions

Excerpt

The contentious debate over President Donald Trump’s sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) took a new turn recently when a federal judge’s preliminary injunction (PI) blocked enforcement of the sanctions against two U.S. citizens in specified circumstances. Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14203, titled “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court,” authorizes sanctions in response to the ICC’s assertion of jurisdiction over nationals of the United States and Israel, neither of which has consented to ICC jurisdiction. 

Contrary to misleading media headlines, the judge’s ruling did not block the sanctions already imposed by Trump on six foreign persons located outside the United States: International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, and four ICC judges. Those sanctions, which remain in place following the PI, have reportedly severely hindered the ICC’s work and resulted in the sanctioned persons losing access to their email and bank accounts.

Orde Kittrie is a law professor at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). He is also a member of CERL’s Advisory Council. Read his bio here.