The adoption of the Rome Statute in 1998 and subsequent establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002 form the apotheosis (for the time being) of the ‘new paradigm of the rule of law’ that is international criminal justice (Teitel 2002: 355). In the euphoric discourse of international politicians and the legal establishment, its aims have proliferated beyond ending the impunity of perpetrators of mass atrocity to which the Preamble to the Statute refers.1 They are now said to include reconciliation, conflict resolution, rehabilitation, deterrence and retribution, promoting democracy and providing victims satisfaction (Brants 2011). The domestication of violence by law through the establishment of a just peace (Hazan 2010) reflects just how idealistic but also political is this unique venture in cosmopolitan liberalism and human rights (Roach 2009, Teitel 2002).