This paper presents a theoretical framework linking domestic and international politics of international criminal justice (ICJ) with the politics of state-survival in the ‘Global South’ through the case of Uganda. It argues that state preference for ICJ should be seen as a form of strategic action, arising from specific political opportunities inherent in the nature of the ICJ system, with the objective of regime survival in the context of internal and external threats to regime authority. It postulates that ICJ allows actors to legitimise politics; the state-centric structure of the ICJ system privileges actors with juridical legitimacy; and the individualisation of responsibility for mass violence elicits differentiated political effects between elite political actors. This results in a dynamic of domestic politics marked by asymmetry of access and competition between elite-level actors, highlighting the ways in which the politics of ICJ can be incorporated into the domestic political order.
