America Is Not Pleased

No more Pol Pots. No more Milosevics. No more Idi Amins. Beginning July 1, in the words of activist William Pace, "thousands of years of impunity" for authors of genocide and war crimes come to an end. With that worthy aim in mind, more than 70 countries, including all 15 members of the European Union, have ratified the 1998 treaty establishing the International Criminal Court in the Hague, which is intended to deter and if necessary prosecute any future Hitler.

Equipped for now only with a skeletal staff and housed temporarily in the former building of the...