International institutions, like the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (icc), promote peace, democracy and justice. However, these intergovernmental institutions are typically governed through vertical structures and strict hierarchies, with little to no room for popular control and democratic participation of the wider society. The internal structures of these institutions are also revealing: individual high officials, from Secretary-Generals to Chief Prosecutors, play a crucial role, and great importance is attached to their personality and individual leadership skills. This article takes the recent and highly contested election process of the third icc Prosecutor, Karim Khan, who was appointed for a period of nine years in 2021, as a case study to reconsider the well-known yet enduring problem of the democratic deficit of international institutions and their at times undemocratic, or even authoritarian-like, decision-making processes. It starts by demonstrating the great attention given to the Prosecutor as an individual, both in the statute of the icc and in legal-political discourses more generally. This will lay the groundwork to develop the argument that this strong focus on certain individuals is highly problematic and does not contribute to increasing the legitimacy of the Court, whatever the reputation, skills and actual conduct of the official in question. As it will be argued, this disconnect can explain some of the deep-seated challenges and criticisms that the icc, and in particular its Prosecutors, have encountered since its establishment in 2002. Finally, the article seeks inspiration from democracy theory, in particular relevant research that has engaged with international institutions, to suggest that the Office of the Prosecutor could be directed not by an almighty chief, but rather by a panel of prosecutors.

中文翻译：

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国际检察官：重新考虑全能的救世主？论国际刑法对个人的执着

国际机构，如联合国和国际刑事法院（国际刑事法院), 促进和平、民主和正义。然而，这些政府间机构通常通过垂直结构和严格的等级制度进行管理，几乎没有或根本没有更广泛社会的大众控制和民主参与的空间。这些机构的内部结构也在揭示：从秘书长到首席检察官，个别高级官员发挥着至关重要的作用，非常重视他们的个性和个人领导能力。这篇文章采用了最近竞争激烈的第三次选举过程国际刑事法院检察官卡里姆·汗 (Karim Khan) 于 2021 年被任命，任期九年，作为一个案例研究，以重新考虑国际机构民主赤字及其有时不民主、甚至类似专制的决定这一众所周知但长期存在的问题-制作过程。它首先展示了检察官作为个人的高度关注，无论是在国际刑事法院以及更普遍的法律政治话语。这将为以下论点奠定基础，即这种对某些个人的强烈关注存在很大问题，并且无助于提高法院的合法性，无论有关官员的声誉、技能和实际行为如何。正如将会争论的那样，这种脱节可以解释一些根深蒂固的挑战和批评，即国际刑事法院，特别是其检察官，自 2002 年成立以来所遇到的问题。最后，本文寻求民主理论的启发，特别是与国际机构合作的相关研究，表明检察官办公室可以不受全能的首领，而是由一群检察官。