If a new permanent international criminal court is set up in the next few years, as many including this newspaper hope, it too will be able to punish the guilty only with prison, not with death.

ECONOMIST: The cruel and ever more unusual punishment

For their part, the Palestinians, under European prodding, would agree not to use their new-won statehood to launch prosecutions against Israelis at the International Criminal Court.

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Rabinder Singh, the QC who represented CND in its challenge to possible war, argued the establishment this week of an International Criminal Court (ICC) posed new issues for British troops.

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Speaking at a UN Security Council debate in New York on Tuesday, Ms Pillay called on the Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court.

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"Germany, in effect, has invited this court to create a new international legal obligation, one that would necessarily intrude deep into the domestic criminal justice system of any state, " Thessin said.

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