The book analyzes the political process that led to the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It argues that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) played an important role in shaping key provisions in the Court's statute and in achieving early ratification of the ICC Statute. NGOs were able to achieve this result through their use of principled, communicatively rational argument. Thus in addition to accounting for the particular outcome of the ICC negotiations, the book also makes a contribution to our theoretical understandings of the ways that NGO discourse can transform the process of policy formation in world politics.

This book examines the political process that led to the establishment of the International Criminal Court in 2002. It accounts for the main features of the court, including its strong, independent prosecutor, by analyzing the discourse surrounding the ICC negotiations, and particularly highlights the role of human rights NGOs.