Targeting the Bench: U.S. Sanctions Against the International Criminal Court

The past year has witnessed a series of measures by the executive branch of the U.S. government that are antagonistic towards international human rights norms and institutions. Most notable among these are the sanctions imposed against judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC). These sanctions have turned policy tools typically applied to the worst war criminals and dictators against the very human rights actors whose raison d’être is to hold those exact figures accountable. 

Join us for an event that will examine the U.S. sanctions on ICC personnel, focusing primarily on their impact on institutions, individual officials, and their families. The discussion will also explore potential responses available to impacted parties—as well as the broader human rights community.  

Alex Whiting is a Professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches, writes and consults on domestic and international criminal prosecution issues. He recently served in the Special Counsel’s Office at the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant Special Counsel. Previously, Whiting was at the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague, as the Head of Investigations, Deputy Specialist Prosecutor, and Acting Specialist Prosecutor.  From 2010 until 2013, he was in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague as the Investigations Coordinator, and then as Prosecutions Coordinator. 

Andrew Loewenstein is a Partner at Foley Hoag whose work involves international boundary disputes, the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, international investment law and investor-State disputes, international environmental law, and international human rights and humanitarian law. Andrew frequently represents sovereign States before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), and U.S. domestic courts under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). 

Naz K. Modirzadeh is a Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School and the Founding Director of the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC). Modirzadeh writes and teaches primarily in the field of public international law, with a focus on non-use of force, armed conflict, and counterterrorism issues. Modirzadeh is on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group and has served on a number of advisory boards for high-level U.N. and other initiatives. 

Gerald Neuman (moderator) is the J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law at Harvard Law School, and Director of its Human Rights Program. Neuman teaches courses in international human rights law, immigration and nationality law, and U.S. constitutional law.