US Secretary of State Marco Rubio placed full sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Oct. 9 in response to continuing investigations into potential war crimes committed by US military personnel, Israel and the Trump administration.

"Our message is clear: the United States and its people are not subject to the jurisdiction of the ICC," Rubio said in a statement. "Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC."

The sanctions permit the federal government to seize ICC assets in the US or controlled by "US persons." There are some specially licensed exceptions, including 180-day grace period licenses giving the ICC and its state parties to address US concerns.

The ICC issued a response statement in which it condemned the action and accused the US of undermining international justice. The court wrote:

This measure targets an independent judicial institution, created by treaty and entrusted by 125 States Parties with investigating and prosecuting genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. It is an attempt to obstruct the course of justice and to prevent the Court from doing what it was created to do. It is an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order which strikes at the simple principle that no one stands above the law.

The announcement came on the same day that South African jurist Navi Pillay won the Nobel Peace Prize for her decades-long work in international justice. A former UN human rights chief, Pillay led a UN-sponsored commission that in September 2025 determined that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza during its military campaign in the territory following the October 7, 2023 attacks.

The sanctions follow from US President Donald Trump's February 2025 executive order, "Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court." The order largely came in response to ICC warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, as well as an ICC investigation into possible US war crimes in Afghanistan. Trump primarily relied on sections of the American Service-Members’ Protection Act of 2002, which seeks to protect US military personnel from ICC prosecution when such personnel act to “protect the national interests of the United States.”

The US action represents an escalation in the ongoing adversarial campaign by the White House against international legal institutions—many of which the US helped create. In January, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the growing divide between international institutions and national interests a “rupture in the world order.”

From JURIST, Oct. 10. Used with permission.

Note: The US is now actually seeking to dismantle the ICC.