An Act to give effect to the Statute of the International Criminal Court; to provide for offences under the law of England and Wales and Northern Ireland corresponding to offences within the jurisdiction of that Court; and for connected purposes.
to fulfill the United Kingdom's obligations under the Statute, particularly in relation to the arrest and surrender of persons wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the provision of assistance with respect to ICC investigations; and
to create a legal framework so that persons convicted by the ICC can serve prison sentences in the United Kingdom.
In 2006, three British military personnel were charged with inhumane treatment, a war crime, under the Act.[4] Two of the three soldiers were cleared but the third, Corporal Donald Payne, became the first British person to be convicted of a war crime under this act, when he admitted to inhumanly treating Baha Mousa.[5]
^Note that the Act does not include the crime of aggression. Although the Rome Statute lists the crime of aggression as a crime under the jurisdiction of the Court, Article 5 of the Rome Statute stipulates that the ICC will not exercise its jurisdiction over the crime of aggression until agreement has been reached on a definition of that crime and the conditions under which jurisdiction will be exercised. Any amendment to the crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC, if accepted by the UK, would need to be given effect by a further Act of Parliament. See Foreign and Commonwealth Office: International Criminal Court Act 2001: Explanatory NotesArchived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, para. 10. Accessed 4 July 2007.