Interpretation of Statute

This book analyses how the complementarity regime of the ICC’s Rome Statute can be implemented in member states, specifically focusing on African states and Nigeria. Complementarity is the principle that outlines the primacy of national courts to prosecute a defendant unless a state is ‘unwilling’ or ‘genuinely unable to act’, assuming the crime is of a ‘sufficient gravity’ for the International Criminal Court (ICC).

This book analyses how the complementarity regime of the ICC’s Rome Statute can be implemented in member states, specifically focusing on African states and Nigeria.

While the system of international law is improving enormously and certain legal provisions are becoming an integral part of jus cogens norms, this body of law must be studied together with other systems which have basically been effective in its development.