Recent developments in The Hague support the idea that the international criminal justice project, epitomised by the International Criminal Court (ICC), is in crisis. In Distant Justice, Phil Clark first re-examines the Court's operational flaws and the damage the court has done to African societies and then proposes radical changes. Centring primarily on Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Clark critically assesses the impact of the ICC, both on national politics and the everyday lives of citizens, analysing the Court ‘as an external intervention into African societies that experiences a range of intersections with domestic actors, institutions, networks, and processes’ (6, emphasis in the original). In doing so, Clark uses the central concept of distance, which examines the effects of delivering justice from afar, but also the philosophical underpinning of the ICC's model as ‘neutral and impartial’, given the Court's primarily non-African staff with limited experience on the continent. The political and philosophical conceptions of distance that the ICC has espoused are visible in the ways the Court has framed itself as superior to national institutions, which are viewed as infected by political, social and cultural influences from which the ICC claims to be insulated (303). Ultimately, the Court failed to achieve the distance from the political arena that it professes, and it became heavily enmeshed in national politics and social dynamics (17). Clark refers to this phenomenon as the complacency of complementarity, because in practice, the Court views itself as superior to domestic legal institutions and often actively undermines them.

Clark employs a rigorous multi-sited, multi-level methodology, spanning 11 years of research, during which he conducted 653 interviews – including 426 interviews with ‘everyday people’ on the African continent (8). Clark's analysis also draws on ICC judgements, court transcripts and public statements by ICC officials. The conceptual framework based on complementarity and distance is tested empirically in Chapters 3–7. African states have been able to manipulate the Court to their own ends, which undermines the criticism of the ICC on the grounds of neocolonialism (52). However, Clark also contends that the ICC has generally failed to secure legitimacy among local populations in Uganda and DRC (149) and that the Court has been competitive – rather than complementary – to national jurisdictions, which highlights the complacency of the complementarity principle and the tendency of distance (185). Addressing transitional justice and the peace vs. justice debate, Clark finds that the ICC undermined the use of amnesties and other transitional justice mechanisms (188). Moreover, the ICC has often undercut community-based practices such as cleansing and reconciliation rituals in northern Uganda and local mediation efforts in eastern DRC.

Beyond Uganda and DRC, Chapter 8 shows the continental pattern of the ICC's interventions and effects, highlighting the cases of Central African Republic, Darfur, Kenya, Libya, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali. In Chapter 9, Clark offers practical recommendations for the reform of the ICC, suggesting that a second Rome conference may be needed, this time in Bunia or Gulu or another city at the epicentre of the ICC's work (312). The reforms must also include the legal, personnel and geographic operations of the Court. The ICC must also intervene only in situations with the most exceptional circumstances, a new threshold that requires humility and caution, and an ideological shift for the Court. Clark also recommends that the ICC hires nationals from and specialists of the states where it plans to intervene, and holds trials in situ, in the communities affected by violence (316).

Overall, Clark has written a very well argued and timely book that indicts the ICC without foreclosing the potential for the Court's redemption if the international community decides to return to the drawing board to reform the institution. Everyone interested in African politics, international justice and liberal interventionism should read this book.