B. Conditions on the Operation of the Court

All three of the following conditions must be met in order for the Court to be able to exercise its powers in a given case: 1. The crime alleged must be one of the crimes listed in Article 5 of the Rome Statute

2. The court must have jurisdiction over the place where the act was committed or the person who committed it

3. The court must have had jurisdiction on the date the crime was committed

Unfortunately crimes that do not meet these conditions cannot be tried by the International Criminal Court, except in certain, very limited, circumstances. (See Section C. Below)

1. Crimes within the court's jurisdiction

It would be impractical to have an international criminal court which had responsibility to try minor offences, which can more easily be dealt with at a national level. Therefore the court has only been given jurisdiction for the most serious international crimes. These are laid out in Article 5. The court has the power to prosecute individuals for Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, and War Crimes. Each is defined in articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute respectively. Article 5 of the Statute also gives the Court jurisdiction for the Crime of Aggression but this jurisdiction has been suspended until such time as the States Parties agree on a definition of the Crime of Aggression. This is not expected to happen for a number of years.

2. Terrritories and Individuals within the Court's jurisdiction

The court derives its jurisdiction from its constituent sovereign states parties. Therefore in order for the Court to have jurisdiction over a particular criminal act a State Party must have some connection with that act. This connection can be established in one of two ways (Established in Article 12 of the Rome Statute):

• The ICC has jurisdiction over crimes which are committed within the territory of a State Party by a perpetrator of any nationality. (this is called "Territorial Jurisdiction") • The ICC has jurisdiction over crimes which are committed by nationals of a State Party, regardless of where these crimes were committed. (this is called "Personal Jurisdiction")

3. Temporal jurisdiction (timeline jurisdiction)

It is important to note that crimes committed before a country becomes a State Party cannot be tried. That is, until the Statute has entered into force in a country the court has no jurisdiction there.

As the Court only came into existence on 1st July 2002 it only has jurisdiction over crimes committed since 1st July, 2002. This means the Court cannot try any crime by any person in any territory before that date.

For countries that ratify the Statute after the 1st July, 2002, the Court only has jurisdiction from after the entry into force of the statute in that country. The Statute enters into force for a new state party on the first day of the month, 60 days after the state ratified, accepted, acceded to or approved of the Statute For example, if State X ratified the statute on 10th September the Court's jurisdiction over the territory and nationals of State X would begin on 1st December. (10th September + 60 Days = 9th November. First day of the month after that = 1st December)

The Principle of Complimentarity

The Court will only start a prosecution if the State Party is not making bona fide efforts to discover the truth and to hold accountable those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The principle - that the Court will only step in as a last resort when a state is unable or unwilling to prosecute – is called the principle of complementarity. It is laid out in Article 17 of the Rome Statute.