How can one account for the contrast between the protracted weakness of the International Criminal Court ( icc ) and the strength of a global justice discourse focused on the criminalization of state and societal violence? To address this puzzle, this article suggests the hypothesis of global justice as a ‘weak field’ that is, a space that is weak as regards its internal autonomy but not weak in its wider social effects. Looking at professional patterns within the icc , and the way in which evidence is marshalled into the Court, its gist is that weakness is not a transitory feature — rather it has developed into a structural feature of the icc , and the broader field of global justice. Grounded in Bourdieu’s field theory, it relies on biographical interviews with icc staff, academics and members of non-governmental organisations operating around the Court.