Laurent Gbagbo’s Trial and the Indictment of the International Criminal Court

This study by Gnaka Lagoké of the International Criminal Court in general and the trial of Laurent Gbagbo at the ICC in particular, is a devastating critique of an institution hoped by many to herald an international rule of law. Critics of the ICC see it as a still-born attempt to address an absolutely laudable cry for justice, especially for civilians in wartime. The Court miscarried for a variety of reasons, all of them detailed by Lagoké in this book. A distinguished son of Africa, and not a Gbagbo partisan, he is clearly motivated by a deep sense of injustice, not least of which the crass political selectivity of the ICC as to which alleged human rights abuses it chose to pursue. There are far too few critiques of the ICC. Lagoké’s scholarship tears apart the ICC’s claim to be a project of international justice as nothing more than conceited hubris, revealing an institution that many now see as an instrument of western neo-colonialism. This is also the first detailed account of the eight-year long Gbagbo case and trial. It will be welcomed by anyone concerned about justice and especially by observers from the Global South.

Dr. David Hoile

Director of the Africa Research Centre in London