FHESS COMMUNICATION XVIII — ACCOUNTABILITY CANNOT DEPEND ON POLITICAL CONVENIENCE: FROM EUROPEAN RESPONSE TO THE ICC'S OWN JUDICIAL ANSWER

FHESS COMMUNICATION XVIII takes as its finding object the public propositions formulated by President of the European Council António Costa before the United Nations General Assembly on 24 September 2026 concerning the independence, integrity and ability of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to fully exercise their mandates, threats and attacks affecting the ICC, and the proposition that “Accountability cannot depend on political convenience.” From these propositions, Communication XVIII finds and presents open questions to the International Criminal Court: How does “unacceptable” become operative? On what can accountability depend when it cannot depend on political convenience? Which capacities attributed by the Rome Statute can the Court itself actualise? The Communication places these questions within the FESS >< FCLS >< FHESS scientific reading framework and gives particular attention to Article 70 and Article 70(4) of the Rome Statute, the distinction PROTECTION >< CAPACITY, and the Court’s capacity to KRINEIN (DISCERN AND DECIDE WITHIN ONE’S OWN POSITION) and formulate its own judicial ANSWER. Annexes XVIII-A to XVIII-F open related finding fields: LOOK AT THE FIELD; CONSTITUTIONAL ENDOLOGUE; HOMECOMING and judicial SELFGRAMMAR; hope as action from attributed competence; the EPISTEMIC FIFTH COLUMN, Trojan Horse and INNER CAPTURE read through TRIAS 3.0; and the relation between immobilised financial capacity and international judicial capacity. Within the TRIAS 3.0 constitutional three-bridge reference grammar, the political/executive, diplomatic/interstate and judicial bridges remain relationally present while retaining their own position, competence and authorship. Communication XVIII therefore presents the questions to the ICC while leaving the competent judicial position to formulate its own ANSWER from within the competences attributed to it by the Rome Statute. THE ANSWER REMAINS WITH THE COURT. Communication XVIII was submitted to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court through OTPLink on 25 September 2026.