By Staff, Agencies

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has launched a sharp criticism of the International Criminal Court [ICC] and the United Nations, accusing international institutions of using international law to challenge Washington’s foreign policy decisions. His remarks, delivered before an audience of lawyers and law students, received loud applause.

Speaking at the National Lawyers Convention organized by the conservative Federalist Society, Rubio said the US State Department had encountered references to international law in response to almost every major foreign policy decision made by President Donald Trump’s administration.

He pointed to Trump’s order authorizing military strikes against suspected cartel boats in the Caribbean, noting that the operation had prompted accusations of violations of international law.

Rubio also condemned the ICC, referring to it as a “fake and illegitimate” institution. He noted that the court’s founding chief prosecutor had accused the United States of committing crimes against humanity.

He further cited criticism from the United Nations following the US operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January and his transfer to the United States to face federal criminal charges.

According to Rubio, international law has become a political instrument used by what he described as the global elite to advance their own interests rather than serve as a neutral framework governing relations between nations.

“For this global elite, international law is not a neutral body of rules,” Rubio said, arguing that it was being used to pursue political objectives under the guise of universal principles.

The US top diplomat also defended Trump’s decision to impose sanctions on the ICC, describing the institution as an unelected international tribunal that claims jurisdiction over sovereign countries, including those that have never accepted its authority.

Rubio argued that neither the United States nor its citizens had agreed to submit to the court’s jurisdiction, accusing the ICC and international bureaucratic institutions of assuming powers without being accountable to the countries they seek to regulate.

“They think they have the right to rule over everyone, but they are accountable to no one,” he said.

Turning to the American judicial system, Rubio drew comparisons between international institutions and what he described as activist courts seeking to govern through judicial injunctions.

He argued that critics of the Trump administration increasingly viewed both American and international law as mechanisms for limiting US power and weakening the country’s position.

Rubio rejected that interpretation, maintaining that American history provides no obligation for the country to recognize institutions or legal principles that Washington considers illegitimate.

“There is nothing in our history, or the history of any other great nation, that requires us to recognize the authority or legitimacy of any of these ridiculous ideas,” he said.