The Dangers of Political Instrumentalization of International Judicial Organs

The Case of Pope Benedict XVI

Scientific Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Law - Miscellaneous, University of Göttingen, language: English, abstract: The child abuse scandal has rocked the Catholic church and has triggered a strong response by the church leadership, first and foremost by Pope Benedict XVI. On 13 September 2011, a case was brought against the pope and several other high ranking church officials at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for alleg-edly 'enabling' child abuse to go unpunished. It has been claimed that this would amount to crimes against humanity. In this short text it will be shown that there has been no 'enabling' on the part of the Holy Father, that there is no basis for a criminal responsibility and that such obviously unfounded claims can actually have serious impacts on the proper functioning of international judicial organs. The con-clusion is reached that the International Criminal Court is the wrong place to reg-ister grievances in this context and that the justice which all victims deserve will not be achieved in this manner. This article is part one in a new series on European and International Human Rights Law.

RA Dr. Stefan Kirchner, MJI, is an international legal consultant, admitted to the bar in Germany (www.marine-consulting-eu). He has worked at the Law of the Sea Division of the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin and at the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. He has been Assistant Professor for the Law of the Sea in Kaunas and Associate Professor for Fundamental and Human Rights in Rovaniemi. After serving as Co-Chair of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Interest Group of the American Society of International Law he now holds that position in ASIL's Law of the Sea Interest Group.