The New York Times

Saturday, December 16, 2000

Needed: A World Criminal Court

To the Editor:

Robert S. McNamara and Benjamin B. Ferencz make excellent legal and moral arguments for why the United States should sign the treaty to establish an International Criminal Court (Op-Ed, Dec. 12).

There is also a strong political argument for signing. That the court will be established in the next couple of years is certain. As a signer, the United States could help nominate judges and prosecutors, and ensure that the court's elaborate machinery for preventing politically biased trial findings be maintained in practice.

As an influential insider, the United States could more effectively prevent the type of antagonistic relationship with the court that would be engendered by continuing American hostility.

CARL KAYSEN and MARTIN MALIN

Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 12, 2000

The writers are, respectively, co-chairman and director of the Committee on International Security Studies, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.