Reparations under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and reparative justice theory.

Source: (2009) The International Journal of Transitional Justice. 3:250-271.

Modern theories of ‘reparative justice’ have substantial ambitions for the project of criminal
justice and, in particular, the relationship between victims and a criminal justice system.
These theories have, in a variety of ways, proven influential in a number of domestic
criminal justice systems. At the international level, the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court has sought to give victims a more central position within the international
criminal justice system. One way in which this has been done is through the creation of a
regime for reparations to victims in Article 75 of the Statute. This article analyses themain
themes of modern reparative justice theory. It goes on to provide a legal analysis of the
main elements of the Rome Statute reparations regime and concludes by asking whether,
given the constraints under which it operates, the regime can meet the needs of victims
in a way that satisfies reparative justice theory. (author’s abstract)