After the humanitarian outrages in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the US championed the creation of international criminal tribunals. Washington also worked to establish a permanent international criminal court. But in 1998, we decided we could not sign the Rome Treaty for a permanent court. This presentation and its subsequent discussion will address what is right and what is wrong with the Court and how to fix its shortcomings.

Professor Ruth Wedgewood has written widely on the changing international law standards for use of force, peacekeeping, and the International Criminal Court. Earlier in her career, she prosecuted an Eastern European spy operating in New York, and led negotiations for the release of Russian dissidents Sakharov and Sharansky. She was appointed by Secretary of Defense Cohen to the National Security Study Group of the Hart-Rudman Commission, and has also headed investigations of the smuggling of military equipment into Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Once a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, Professor Wedgewood is a member of the Board of Editors for the American Journal of International Law, and has been appointed Director of Research for the American Society of International Law.