Kenneth Roth is Executive Director of Human Rights Watch and has directly rebutted Kissinger’s paper. Roth’s position emphasis is that Tyrants commit atrocities as genocide to calculate creating a culture of impunity of which domestic courts uphold. Roth states that international courts are emerging from this pattern (Roth 2001).

Roth rebuts Kissinger with mostly abstraction and follows with particular instances (Roth 2001):

 In "The Pitfalls of Universal Jurisdiction" (July/August 2001), former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger catalogues a list of grievances against the juridical concept that people who commit the most severe human rights crimes can be tried wherever they are found. But his objections are misplaced, and the alternative he proposes is little better than a return to impunity.

Both debaters argue only modern positive documents regarding Universal Jurisdiction. Kissinger posits that he does not believe that the signatories of early treaties as the Geneva Conventions of 1949 require each participating state to "search for" persons who have committed grave breaches of the conventions and to "bring such persons, regardless of nationality, before its own courts." (Roth 2001).

Roth cites that Kissinger bases his critique on two points: the soon-to-be-formed International Criminal Court and the exercise of universal jurisdiction by national courts. Kissinger’s claim that the ICC treaty are “vague” and “susceptible to political application.” Roth counters that the ICC’s definition of war crimes resembles the Pentagon’s and is derived from the Genocide Convention of 1948 ratified by 131 countries and the United States.

A position also set forth by Kissinger is that membership of international courts composition is arbitrary and subjects American’s to due process violations. Roth concurs in part stating that any court’s regard for dupe process is only as “good as the quality and temperament of its judges.” (Roth 2001).

Roth states that any fear of the ICC violating the U.S. Constitution is unlikely. The Rome treaty “deprives the ICC of jurisdiction if, after the court gives required notice of its intention to examine a suspect, the suspect's government conducts its own good-faith investigation and, if appropriate, prosecution.” Roth further states that recently national courts have exercised universal jurisdiction against Bosnian war criminals, Rwandan genocidaires, argentine torturers, and Chad’s former dictator. This was not based on any grounds of ideology (Roth 2001).

One of Kissinger’s strongest objections is that universal jurisdiction subjects Americans to a foreign court. Roth states: As a nation committed to human rights and the rule of law, the United States should be embracing an international system of justice, even if it means that Americans, like everyone else, might sometimes be scrutinized.

Summary

Sound laws begin with sound moral principles. In this light the universality of crimes against humanity should also be embraced by the community of nations to bring belligerents to justice. Nationalism and ideology do not provide a support based on realism for non-performance of compromises under international law. Treaties are signed, ascended, and then ratified by member countries. Membership in the Universal System permits the United Nations to communicate with the party states.

The cited treaties reflect the Princeton Principles in degree. Mr. Kissinger brings a wealth of real world experience to this discussion. Mr. Roth is a leader in the second largest human rights group Human Rights Watch. I believe in degree Kissinger’s case lies in the power-control argument. The beautiful abstraction turns into a human battering ram. Roth concurs that competency of officials comprise the efficiency of any level of real justice performed by the court.

The United States is likely to peruse a course of pragmatism agreeing to international law where its jurisdiction over nationals and particularly soldiers in the field are not directly affected. This latter condition is evident in the Bush administration agreeing to a seating of a court regarding recent events in Darfur, Sudan.

The thorny problem of Universal Jurisdiction will focalize as the world’s only superpower, the United States is confronted by the concrete need to use international justice to maintain its prestige and legitimacy in the international environment.

Works Cited

Kissinger, H. (2001). The Pitfalls of Universal Jurisdiction. Retrieved June 25, 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://www.globalpolicy.org/intljustice/general/2001/07kiss.htm

            Roth, K. (2001). The Case for Universal Jurisdiction. Retrieved June 25, 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://www.globalpolicy.org/intljustice/general/2001/roth08.htm

            University of Minnesota Human Rights Library (2001). The Princeton Principles on Universal Jurisdiction 28 (2001). Retrieved June 25, 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/princeton.html