Credit: Greger Ravik (CC BY 2.0)

An executive order issued by the US president earlier this month targeted “ICC officials, employees, and agents, as well as their immediate family members”.

Mr Trump accused the court of having “engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel” after judges agreed in November 2024 to issue arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders.

In a statement published today, the CLA says that Mr Trump’s executive order “will embolden those who may have committed crimes under international law to continue acting with impunity”.

“Interference with an international justice organisation is evidence of autocratic conduct, which profoundly erodes and undermines the rule of law,” it continues.

“If left unchecked, this will encourage other autocratic leaders to also disregard essential principles. Such a trend would, in many countries, incalculably jeopardise the fundamental rights of citizens.”

It says the CLA agrees with the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, an American legal scholar who has urged governments to speak in defence of the ICC.

“The CLA condemns the executive order and asserts that no one responsible for crimes under international law should be protected or aided in their attempts to escape individual or collective accountability,” the statement says.

The CLA exists to maintain and promote the rule of law throughout the Commonwealth by ensuring that an independent and efficient legal profession serves the people of the Commonwealth.

Belfast lawyer Brian Speers, a former president of the Law Society of Northern Ireland, served as the association’s president from 2019 to 2023 and continues to play a prominent role.