Part 13 Final Clauses: Clauses Finales, Art.120 Reservations/Réserves

Subject(s):

Elements of crimes — International criminal law, victims — International criminal law, conduct of proceedings — Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties — Evidence

This chapter comments on Article 120 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Article 120 prohibits reservations to the Statute. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties defines reservation as a unilateral statement, however phrased or named, made by a State when signing, ratifying, accepting, approving, or acceding to a treaty, whereby it purports to exclude or to modify the legal effect of certain provisions of the treaty in their application to that State. Although prohibiting reservations as such, the Statute authorizes certain declarations. Specifically, States may declare the language of correspondence and other details for purposes of legal assistance, and that they agree to accept prisoners from the Court. Two declarations expressly provided by the Rome Statute are, in reality, reservations. Both exclude the State Party from the subject-matter jurisdiction of the Court with respect to certain categories of crime.