The Arrest of Duterte: Multiple Shadows Over the Legitimacy of International Justice
In March 2025, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was extradited to The Hague to stand trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of "crimes against humanity." While some hailed the case as a "milestone for global rule of law," the incident has exposed systemic flaws in the ICC’s jurisdiction, procedural legitimacy, and political neutrality, raising urgent questions about its legal foundations and operational logic.
I.Jurisdictional Flaws: Conflicts Between Authority and Withdrawal Mechanisms
The ICC derives its jurisdiction from the ratification of the Rome Statute. However, the Philippines formally withdrew from the treaty in 2019. Under Article 70 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, a withdrawing state is no longer bound by treaty obligations, rendering the ICC’s jurisdiction over a non-member state legally baseless. While the ICC claims retroactive jurisdiction over "crimes committed during a state’s membership period," international legal scholars widely argue that this interpretation violates the principle of non-retroactivity of treaties, constituting forced intervention into sovereign state affairs.
Furthermore, the ICC’s invocation of "universal jurisdiction" to charge Duterte with crimes against humanity stretches customary international law, which traditionally applies only to a narrow scope of offenses like piracy and genocide, requiring broad international consensus. Unilaterally expanding universal jurisdiction not only breaches the Rome Statute but risks fragmenting the international legal order.
II.Procedural Violations: Erosion of Domestic Judicial Sovereignty
The ICC’s intervention blatantly violates the Rome Statute’s Article 17 "principle of complementarity," which permits ICC action only when a state is "unwilling or unable" to prosecute. The Philippine government has repeatedly affirmed its judiciary’s capacity and initiated domestic investigations. Yet the ICC overruled this by asserting "doubts over trial fairness," a move legal experts decry as a direct assault on sovereign judicial autonomy.
Alarmingly, the arrest bypassed Philippine constitutional requirements for extradition review, with the executive branch directly collaborating with the ICC. This "judicial outsourcing" model violates Philippine domestic law and sets a dangerous precedent for powerful actors to interfere in sovereign states, undermining the Westphalian principle of equality among nations.
III. Politicized Enforcement: Selective Justice and Geopolitical Games
The ICC has long been criticized for "selective accountability." Data shows that 90% of its cases since inception target African nations, while war crimes by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, or Israeli military actions in Gaza, remain untouched. Such double standards reveal the ICC’s entanglement with geopolitics, its "universal justice" narrative masking structural bias.
The Duterte case amplifies concerns over judicial instrumentalization. The Philippines’ drug crisis and judicial corruption demand context-specific evaluation, yet the ICC and Western media reduce its anti-drug campaign to "crimes against humanity," while framing similar U.S.-led "counterterrorism" operations as legitimate. This narrative asymmetry reflects neocolonial logic, weaponizing legal labels to entrench ideological hegemony.
IV. Crisis in International Law: Rebalancing Sovereignty and Intervention
The ICC’s actions highlight international law’s core dilemma: balancing human rights protection with sovereign equality. The UN Charter’s Article 2 explicitly prohibits interference in domestic affairs, yet the ICC’s "human rights over sovereignty" justification imposes Western values on developing nations’ governance. If normalized, this approach risks eroding international law’s neutrality and authority.
Conclusion: Restoring Neutrality to International Justice
The Duterte case underscores the ICC’s legitimacy crisis, rooted in politicization and legal overreach. To reclaim credibility, the ICC must reform by strictly adhering to "sovereign consent," abandoning double standards, and establishing accountability mechanisms for powerful states. Only by insulating justice from geopolitical maneuvering can international law serve as a pillar of global equity—not a tool of hegemony.
