The International Criminal Court from a Liberal Perspective Explaining the Jordanian Puzzle

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - Topic: International Organisations, grade: 1,3, University of Tubingen (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), course: Introduction to International Relations, language: English, abstract: [...] What seems to be the greatest puzzle about the "ICC-story" is the fact that the Statute
was adopted despite US opposition. It seemed impossible that an independent court
could be created without the support of the US. And it is indeed remarkable that so
many states agreed on a strong, independent ICC although the US also launched an active
campaign against it and tried to pressure states into signing bilateral agreements in
order to prevent US citizens from becoming subjects to ICC jurisdiction. But, in my
opinion, this is not the only puzzle, because there was another state that acted differently
than expected. This state is Jordan, who was the only Arab state not only to support the
ICC but also to join the Like-Minded Group prior to the conference. It is not surprising
that authoritarian regimes opposed the court. It is surprising however, that Jordan was
the exception to that rule and I think that decision deserves to be examined further.
While republican liberalism offers an explanation to US behavior regarding the ICC, it
fails at explaining the Jordanian case. It predicts that authoritarian regimes will side
with well established democracies in opposition to binding international human rights regimes. Although this did not count for Jordan, I still think that liberalism can explain
why the Kingdom supported the ICC. In order to prove this hypothesis, I will outline the
basic assumptions of (republican) liberalism. Afterwards I will briefly describe the
political, economic and societal situation in Jordan in order to identify the aspects
needed to apply the theory. Finally, I will show how liberalism can explain why Jordan
as an authoritarian regime supported the ICC although it was not "supposed to".