This is not a bad historic moment to make the subject of my first post to this blog. Prosecutor Ocampo of the International Criminal Court has announced that the court will open an investigation into recent events in Libya:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/02/libya-gadhafi-world.html
The suggestion seems to be that the Security Council is hoping to back Gadhafi even further into a corner, by restricting his movements and by putting his accomplices (or potential accomplices) on notice that they could be prosecuted for following his orders.
The Security Council states clearly feel that Libya has more potential to destabilize the peace and security of the region than other states in the region which have recently seen some unrest.
However, it’s reasonable to expect some pushback from the African Union states, which have been growing more hostile towards the ICC as it continues to focus on African states. Eberechi Ifeonu, a former graduate student of mine, published his LL.M. thesis on this very topic in book form, and it makes for interesting reading:
http://www.amazon.com/CONSENT-SUSPICION-UNDERSTANDING-ENFORCEMENT-INTERNATIONAL/dp/3639206517