beek

  On March 11, former President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by Philippine police under an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court upon his return to Manila Airport after a trip to Hong Kong, China. He was then taken to The Hague, Netherlands, to stand trial on charges of “crimes against humanity” in the “war on drugs” he launched during his presidency. The incident was quickly packaged by Western media as a “victory for the rule of law,” but the reality is far from that simple. Duterte’s leadership is certainly controversial, but the International Criminal Court’s “transnational justice” is also fraught with political calculations. Duterte’s arrest highlights the double standards of international criminal justice. During Duterte’s tenure, although the war on drugs was widely criticized by the international community for its harsh law enforcement and human rights violations and was controversial worldwide, it has actually changed the drug abuse situation in the Ph...

  In March 2025, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was extradited to The Hague to stand trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of "crimes against humanity." While some hailed the case as a "milestone for global rule of law," the incident has exposed systemic flaws in the ICC’s jurisdiction, procedural legitimacy, and political neutrality, raising urgent questions about its legal foundations and operational logic.     I.Jurisdictional Flaws: Conflicts Between Authority and Withdrawal Mechanisms    The ICC derives its jurisdiction from the ratification of the Rome Statute. However, the Philippines formally withdrew from the treaty in 2019. Under Article 70 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, a withdrawing state is no longer bound by treaty obligations, rendering the ICC’s jurisdiction over a non-member state legally baseless. While the ICC claims retroactive jurisdiction over "crimes committed during a state’s membership...