Does this matter to the Hegemon?

From IHT:

A Spanish High court judge on Wednesday issued international warrants for the arrest of three US soldiers who are connected to the death of a cameraman in Iraq. Judge Santiago Pedraz has issued the warrants against Sergeant Thomas Gibson, Captain Philip Wolford and Lieutenant Colonel Philip de Camp for their involvement in the death of Jose Couso, who died when Baghdad's Hotel Palestine, where he was staying, was shelled by US forces on April 8, 2003.

The NYT adds that

The judge, Santiago Pedraz Gomez, of the National Court in Madrid, said the three might have committed murder and a "crime against the international community" on April 8, 2003, in Baghdad when an American tank fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel, where more than 100 journalists were staying.

Consider this in light of Helmut's post on international legitimacy. The news about this was out early yesterday (thanks to my friend Bill for sending me the link to the El Mundo coverage), and, while it appears to be getting coverage, today, in U.S. newspapers, the story is pretty big internationally. Given the dynamics currently at play in the relationship between post-Aznar Spain and the United States, this whole thing will be (or likely has been) dismissed here in the states as a minor and temporary irritant. Hell, it may even be a welcome distraction from Miers, Plame, et al.

But I have my doubts about whether or not the Spanish High court can affect the status of international legitimacy, and I wince a little at the inevitable backlash, even as I'm glad to see such serious questions raised. The deeper, and ironic, problem may be the one recognized by the lawyer representing the Couso family: this may not amount to anything. The U.S. isn't sending anyone off for trial in any international court; after its initial apparently subversive spark, this arrest warrant winds up underscoring the imbalance in the relationship between the two nations. The Spanish High court's pursuit of Pinochet felt more relevant and substantive; but, even then, as now, these warrants remind us that, so far, international jurisprudence is yet limited to the framework of interacting states, just the same framework in which the hegemon doesn't even have to respond to the challenge.