Global processes taking place in the modern world overwhelm different spheres of human life: social, economical, political. For the globalization of international relations becomes a characteristic of our epoch, naturally, appears the necessity to develop international cooperation in different fields and work out universal principles of relations between different countries and peoples. As a result nowadays we have such organizations as WTO, UN, and others that unite many countries by common goals which may vary depending on the organization and its members but the general goal remains unchangeable, i.e. preventing any conflicts and solving existing ones between different countries on the upper level of social organization.

Naturally, to fulfill this task the world needs regulations or laws common for all countries. That is why if we have economy then it concerns the whole world and demands an international cooperation as well as the worlds politics. Unfortunately, not only economy or politics have global character and not always they are fair and human. We can find a lot of examples when the criminal world spread its influence through out several countries, continents or even the world itself as well as the policy of some regimes may have a criminal character. In order to struggle against such phenomena and prevent them the international community came to the realization that we need such court that could have an international power. The realization of this fact led to the appearance of the International Court of Justice and, finally, the International Criminal Court (ICC).

By creating the ICC, people made a great step forward in their development but only theoretically because the idea of the ICC hasnt been realized completely yet. Initially, the ICC was supposed to deal with the crimes that violate principle human rights all over the world such as crimes against humanity, war crimes, or crimes against whole peoples (genocide).

For much country couldnt cope with these problems independently they began the process of the ICCs creating that as they supposed would punish criminals who violated laws mentioned above. Not surprisingly that the first role here played the UN as the most authoritative organization uniting a great number of countries and which principle task is to provide the world for peace and protect human rights. And as I said in 1998 the Conference in Rome gave life to the treaty for the establishment of the ICC. But only in April 2002 66 countries ratified the treaty that marked the start point of official commencement of creation and work of the ICC. It means that these countries accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC and the responsibility to fulfill the obligations according to the treaty, i.e. since that time on they have to investigate crimes that violate norms of the international law.

So, the ICC is really necessary and has goals which correspond to the actual situation in the world and it also has a lot of supporters but, at the same time, there are enough skeptics who doubt in the effectiveness of its work. Unfortunately, they have reasons for such doubts. First of all, some countries draw international attention to the problem of antagonism of their national law and interests and the work of the ICC. Secondly, they estimate that it would interfere in their inner affairs and would impact their independence so as the ICC could have a big power and its jurisdiction extends to the country that are not its members. Also, some definitions in the treaty are not clear enough from a juridical point of view. Finally, there is certain misunderstanding in the interpretation of those crimes that should be treated on the level of the ICC.

That is why some countries oppose to the ICC and do not ratify the treaty. Among them we can name China, the USA, Israel. And they have their reasons because if we take into account last events in Iraq or Afghanistan it is highly probable that the American troops could be found guilty in the violation of human rights and international law. That make me think that the ICC wont work effectively till the moment of finding a consensus that could content all countries and especially such strong and influential as the USA because it is impossible to build any international structure without support of main political players and mutual understanding between the state parties.

At the conclusion I want to underline the importance of the ICC because, theoretically, it could solve many problems of the modern world as well as it could contribute to the development of democracy and protection of human rights all over the world. It also could punish those outcasts that do not want to obey to universal, human principles that are declared in so many international laws. But those contradictions that exist between the members of the treaty, misunderstanding, and, probably, overestimating of national interests more then universal ones do not permit to the ICC to fulfill its task as it could possibly do in better circumstances. Eventually, it will be a great mistake if mankind lose the chance to establish an effective ICC. Buy essay