Relevance of the law of international organisations in resolving international disputes : a review of the AU/ICC impasse

The paper examines the legal nature of the dispute between the ICC & the AU and observes that the core issue revolves around the arrest warrant issued by the court for Al-Bashir. Therefore, it locates this to be within a legal rather than political impasse. The paper argues that the general rules of the law of international organisations may provide the key to resolving the impasse. And that accordingly, the general principle of the regime point to the interpretation of the provisions of the constitution of the two international organizations to identify the extent to which they are empowered to make the decisions that resulted in the dispute. The provisions of the Rome Statute on immunity are identified as providing the key to the resolution. Therefore the interpretation of the Statute on the immunity of certain State officials is important. The paper interprets the Rome State as providing for the irrelevance of immunity before the court without obstructing the horizontal obligations States owe to each other pursuant to other international norms. Such an interpretation would indicate that States may exercise caution in arresting a sitting Head of State such as Al-Bashir unless such a time that he leaves office or Sudan waives his immunity.