El inicio de una investigación por la Corte Penal Internacionalla superación del test de admisibilidad

Abstract

This work tries to carry out a sistematic study of the criteria described in the Statute of the International Criminal Court addressed to establish the existence of the reasonable elements that allow the initiation of the investigation. The referral of a situation or the reception of communications of possible crimes to be studied by the Court does not authomatically imply the initiation of an investigation but a proceeding that has as its scope the analysis of some elements. The first question to establish is whether those reported crimes do fullfil the requirements of material, space or personal and temporal jurisdiction of the Court. Then, the so called admisibility test of article 17 of the Statute is carried out based on the application of the principle of complementarity which gives preference to national judiciaries. It has to be taken into account the activity or inactivity of State, its lack of ability or willingness to proceed, the effect of "res iudicata" together with the severity of the reported facts. Even though this analysis is done, it is possible that the investigation or the prosecution by the Court is not carried out bases on the "interest of justice".