È uno Stato o no? La determinazione della giurisdizione territoriale della Corte penale internazionale sulla situazione in Palestina

On February 5, 2021 the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court ruled that Palestine qualifies as a State Party to the Rome Statute and therefore it is a territorial State for the purposes of Article 12(2)(a) of the Statute, regardless of the issue of Palestinian statehood under international law, which the Court is not competent to address. Moreover, the Chamber found that the Court’s territorial jurisdiction extends to the territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. However, the Chamber’s ruling unduly reduces the bearing that general international law – including rules concerning matters of statehood, the interpretation of treaties, the legal personality of international organizations and the conferral of powers upon them – would have on the question whether, and to what extent, the Court has jurisdiction in the situation of Palestine. In particular, it opens up to the idea that in contemporary international law there is no single notion of State.