For a few hours last week, the International Criminal Court looked poised to take a Libyan warlord into custody. Instead, member state Italy sent the head of a notorious network of detention centers back home.

European officials had warned that the bill, prompted by an arrest warrant for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, would irreparably harm the institution.

Legislation that would have imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court in protest of its arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister was blocked in the U.