Africa Table - Unpacking the Deterrent Effect of the International Criminal Court: Lessons from Kenya

Join the Center for African Studies for our weekly lunchtime lecture series.

Speaker: Yvonne Dutton, Associate Professor, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

Yvonne M. Dutton is an Associate Professor at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. Professor Dutton’s research interests include international criminal law, international human rights law, and maritime piracy. Broadly speaking, her scholarship examines questions about international cooperation and the role and effectiveness of international institutions in deterring and holding accountable those who commit crimes of international concern. In May 2013, her book entitled Rules, Politics, and the International Criminal Court: Committing to the Court was published by Routledge. Professor Dutton graduated from Columbia Law School, where she served on the Columbia Law Review. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dutton has practiced law as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where she tried narcotics trafficking and organized crime cases. 

Dutton and collaborator Tessa Alleblas from The Hague Institute for Global Justice conducted a case study examining the deterrent effect of the ICC on Kenya’s human rights practices over time. Unique to this study is that it includes novel data from interviews conducted in Nairobi during 2015 with former government officials, journalists, academics, leaders in civil society and think tanks. Although recent empirical work suggests the ICC has a deterrent effect, this case study evidence reveals the complexities of gauging the ICC’s deterrent power and shows that not all actors are deterred in all situations or in the same ways—or even permanently.

To learn more, download her paper.