Consolidation of international criminal law has been fostered by geopolitical contexts of leadership by a minority group of powers, as happened after the end of the Second World War and during the Cold War. Today, the world is once again in a position of lack of guidance by a single State, hindering the exercise of international criminal law, both in the form of ad hoc or mixed courts, as well as the ineffectiveness of the International Criminal Court in the Face of global fragmentation. This is evidenced by the Syrian civil war, a conflict which finds historical parallels with the Spanish civil war, confirming the unviability of international criminal law in a situation of a vacuum of leadership.