Limits of the Obligations of States Not Parties to the Rome Statute to Cooperate with the International Criminal Court Following a Referral by the United Nations Security Council

The relevance of the study is determined by the divergent approaches to defining the legal consequences of a referral by the United Nations Security Council to the International Criminal Court for States not parties to the Rome Statute, particularly with regard to the emergence and scope of their obligations to cooperate with the Court. The purpose of the study is to determine the legal basis and limits of the obligations of such States to cooperate with the International Criminal Court following a referral by the United Nations Security Council. To achieve this purpose, the following objectives are pursued: to distinguish between the treaty obligations of States Parties to the Rome Statute and the obligations of States not parties to it; to determine the legal significance of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1593 (2005) and 1970 (2011) for the emergence of the obligation to cooperate with the Court; to establish the limits of the functional assimilation of a State not party to the Statute to a State Party; and to identify the criteria for determining when third States are obliged to comply with requests of the ICC. The scientific significance of the study lies in systematizing the legal bases for cooperation with the ICC and distinguishing three groups of States depending on the source of the relevant obligations. The practical value of the study consists in formulating criteria that make it possible to determine the existence and scope of a particular State's obligation to comply with an ICC request, taking into account its status in relation to the Rome Statute, the content of the applicable United Nations Security Council resolution or another basis under international law, and the connection of the request with the limits of the referred situation. The main results of the study are as follows: it is established that a referral does not in itself alter the treaty status of a State or extend the Rome Statute to that State in its entirety; the territorial State's obligation to cooperate with the Court arises from the relevant United Nations Security Council resolution, whereas the provisions of the Statute determine the procedural forms of such cooperation; other States not parties to the Statute acquire the relevant obligation only where an independent basis under international law exists.