# How the Trump Administration’s ICC sanctions reveal the power of international law
**Date de l'événement :** 31/08/2026
* Publié le 31/08/2026

### Image
![Headquarters of the International Criminal Court in The Hague (Netherlands)](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/memory-sp-pr.appspot.com/o/prod%2F1y7CgDOTakHDiB3dgoi0%2FprojectsMedias%2Fx7x53PkXX1SQn72iQmVr%2Fthumbs%2F1_1600x900.png?alt=media&token=e8163207-cf8a-4373-83a9-87dcf2e29540) 

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In _The Autumn of the Patriarch_ (Gabriel García Márquez, 1975), the ageing dictator takes pleasure in just one thing: watching his fallen former colleagues playing cards in the room set aside for their exile, and revelling in their destitution and obsequiousness toward him. This portrayal of ageing power – obsessed with its own survival and with the spectacle of the downfall of once untouchable leaders – captures the fear of the moment when power ceases to protect those who once wielded it.  
  
Contemporary attacks on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and international mechanisms for investigating human rights violations echo this sense of time, this fear of losing impunity, and bring to the fore the effective power of international law. The US sanctions are less aimed at what these institutions can do that will challenge US sovereignty today than at what they might set in motion tomorrow. In addition to an arrest warrant, there may be a preliminary legal classification and proceedings, followed, why not, by a judgement and conviction. But even more importantly, even if this is not fully achieved, international judges will play a central role in determining the legitimacy of condemning their actions as crimes and in determining how to characterise their epoch and regime, as the legacy of Nuremberg reminds us.  
  
Therefore, the United States’ relentless campaign against international justice is not a sign of a calm and self-assured sovereignty. On the contrary, it betrays a deep-seated fear: that the legal language will outlive the political protections of the moment, and that those who believed they were protected by power may be caught up forever by the legal classification of their actions and their reputation.  
  
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→ [Cliquez ici pour lire cet article en français](https://sources.sciencespo.fr/content/2026-08-11/ladministration-trump-veut-sanctionner-ceux-qui-jugent-un-aveu-de-la-force-du-droit-international_ySesP9w6UFcLUl27nflo).

**Pour lire l'article complet, cliquez sur le lien ci-dessous :** [https://theconversation.com/how-the-trump-administrations-icc-sanctions-reveal-the-power-of-international-law-290452](https://theconversation.com/how-the-trump-administrations-icc-sanctions-reveal-the-power-of-international-law-290452)

## Auteur(s)
Didier Bigo

### Date
31/08/2026

### Type(s) de ressource
`#Texte` 

### Discipline(s)
`#Droit` 

### Thématique(s)
`#Justice / droit / criminalité` `#Démocratie / institutions` 

### Aire(s) géographique(s)
`#Amérique du Nord` 

### Langue(s)
`#Anglais` 

## Crédits photo
Milos Ruzicka / Shutterstock

### Licence attribuée à l'article
`#CC-BY-ND (Attribution; Pas de modification)` 

### Famille(s) de contenu
`#Recherche` 

### Type(s) d'accès
`#Accès libre` 

### Partenaire(s)
**[The Conversation](https://sources.sciencespo.fr/structure/the-conversation_QdYqgYnzKVyePLgMp3g8)** 


### Hébergeur(s)
`#The Conversation` 

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