American Service-Members' Protection Act
United States federal law enacted 2 August 2002
The American Service-Members' Protection Act (ASPA), known as the Hague Invasion Act (Title 2 of Pub. L. 107–206 (text) (PDF), H.R. 4775, 116 Stat. 820, enacted August 2, 2002), is a United States federal law described as "a bill to protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not party." The text of the ASPA has been codified as subchapter II of chapter 81 of title 22, United States Code. The act gives the president power to use "all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any U.S. or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court" (ICC), located in The Hague, Netherlands.
Description
The United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The American Service-Members' Protection Act (ASPA) authorizes the U.S. President to use "all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any U.S. or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court". This authorization led to the act being nicknamed the Hague Invasion Act, since the act would allow the president to order military action in The Hague, the seat of the ICC, to prevent U.S. or allied officials and military personnel from being prosecuted or detained by the ICC.
Adoption
The bill was introduced by U.S. Senator Jesse Helms (Republican from North Carolina) and U.S. Representative Tom DeLay (Republican from Texas), as an amendment to the 2002 Supplemental Appropriations Act for Further Recovery From and Response to Terrorist Attacks on the United States (H.R. 4775). The amendment (S.Amdt 3597) was passed 75–19 by the U.S. Senate, with 30 Democrats and 45 Republicans voting in support. The bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 2, 2002.
Contents
Section 2008 of the ASPA authorizes the president of the U.S. "to use all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any person described in subsection (b) who is being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court", while Section 2013 specifies this authority shall extend to "covered United States persons" (members of the U.S. Armed Forces, elected or appointed officials of the U.S. Government, and other persons employed by, or working on behalf of, the U.S. Government) and "covered allied persons" (military personnel, elected or appointed officials, and other persons employed by, or working on behalf of, the government of a NATO member country or a major non-NATO ally, including Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Argentina, South Korea, New Zealand, and Taiwan).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “American Service-Members' Protection Act” is united States federal law enacted 2 August 2002. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through American, Service-Members' and Protection, not as a finished interpretation.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q466730. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2002, 2008 and 2013.
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This entry incorporates text from “American Service-Members' Protection Act” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.