The Responsibility of States for International Crimes


Book Description

This book focuses on the concept of state responsibility for international crimes, which gained support following the First World War, but was pushed into the background by the development of the principle of individual criminal responsibility under international law after the Second World War. Jorgensen considers the history and merits of a concept that, it is argued, is currently on the threshold between lex ferenda and lex lata.




The Relationship Between State and Individual Responsibility for International Crimes


Book Description

This book offers a unique comparison between state and individual responsibility for international crimes and examines the theories that can explain the relationship between these two regimes. The study provides a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the relevant international practice from the standpoint of both international criminal law, and in particular the case law of international criminal tribunals, and state responsibility. The author shows the various connections and issues arising from the parallel establishment of state and individual responsibility for the commission of the same international crimes. These connections indicate a growing need to better co-ordinate these regimes of international responsibility. The author maintains that a general conception, according to which state and individual responsibility are two separate sets of secondary rules attached to the breach of the same primary norms, can help to solve the various issues relating to this dual responsibility. This conception of the complementarity between state and individual responsibility justifies co-ordination and consistent application of these two different regimes, each of which aims to foster compliance with the most important obligations owed to the international community as a whole.




International Crimes in National Regulations of Selected States


Book Description

The analysis of national systems shows that states do not follow a single legislative model to govern criminal responsibility for international crimes at the national level, and often face doubts as to how far they are only expected to copy international constructions, and how far they should modify treaty or customary international law solutions to adapt them to their specific needs or legal culture. In the presented texts, the reader will find a range of commentaries on the definition of crimes, the rules of jurisdiction, the rules of responsibility, as well as difficulties in the framing of specific crimes within a judgement. The texts refer to the practice of national courts as well as international and internationalized courts. The authors of this publication hope that showing various national perspectives, political and – at times – cultural impacts on certain legal solutions will both facilitate understanding of the doubts as to the current form of international law norms and the system of international justice now in operation, and enable learning lessons for the future directions of amendments to national legislations, so that errors or difficulties once encountered in some countries could be turned into more robust legal constructions in others.




State Sovereignty and International Criminal Law


Book Description

'State sovereignty' is often referred to as an obstacle to criminal justice for core international crimes by members of the international criminal justice movement. The exercise of State sovereignty is seen as a shield against effective implementation of such crimes. But it is sovereign States that create and become parties to international criminal law treaties and jurisdictions. They are the principal enforcers of criminal responsibility for international crimes, as reaffirmed by the complementarity principle on which the International Criminal Court (ICC) is based. Criminal justice for atrocities depends entirely on the ability of States to act. This volume revisits the relationship between State sovereignty and international criminal law along three main lines of inquiry. First, it considers the immunity of State officials from the exercise of foreign or international criminal jurisdiction. Secondly, with the closing down of the ad hoc international criminal tribunals, attention shifts to the exercise of national jurisdiction over core international crimes, making the scope of universal jurisdiction more relevant to perceptions of State sovereignty. Thirdly, could the amendments to the ICC Statute on the crime of aggression exacerbate tensions between the interests of State sovereignty and accountability? The book contains contributions by prominent international lawyers including Professor Christian Tomuschat, Judge Erkki Kourula, Judge LIU Daqun, Ambassador WANG Houli, Dr. ZHOU Lulu, Professor Claus Kre, Professor MA Chengyuan, Professor JIA Bingbing, Professor ZHU Lijiang and Mr. GUO Yang.




Duality of Responsibility in International Law


Book Description

This book explores consequences arising in the field of State responsibility in relation to those arising for the individual in international criminal law, a relationship that broadly defines duality of responsibility in international law.




State Responsibility for Support of Armed Groups in the Commission of International Crimes


Book Description

State Responsibility for the Support of Armed Groups in the Commission of International Crimes makes a case for the liberalisation of the tests of attribution of conduct of individuals to states under the rules of state responsibility in international law.




Individual Criminal Responsibility for Core International Crimes


Book Description

1.1 Opening Remarks and Objectives Crimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law 2 be enforced. This is, perhaps, the most renowned citation from the judgment of the Int- national Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (“IMT”). In the six decades which have passed since the IMT judgment was handed down, the recognition of the c- cept of individual criminal responsibility for core international crimes has been significantly reinforced and developed, particularly since the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (“ICTR”) in the 1990’s and most recently the International Criminal Court (“ICC”). The media has, of course, played a crucial role in increasing awareness of this concept, especially amongst the general populace. Indeed, the concept has, arguably, a much higher profile today, than ever before in its history. However, the concept of individual criminal responsibility for core inter- tional crimes is neither as straightforward nor as single-facetted, as might appear on first glance. While the general principle behind the concept does not generate too many difficulties, it is in its practical application that the more challenging aspects of the concept are brought to the fore. Each of these ‘challenging - pects’ can also be described as a ‘pertinent issue’ of the concept of individual criminal responsibility for core international crimes.




The Responsibility to Protect in International Law


Book Description

This book will consider a rapidly emerging guiding general principle in international relations and, arguably, in international law: the Responsibility to Protect. This principle is a solution proposed to a key preoccupation in both international relations and international law scholarship: how the international community is to respond to mass atrocities within sovereign States. There are three facets to this responsibility; the responsibility to prevent; the responsibility to react, and the responsibility to rebuild. This doctrine will be analysed in light of the parallel development of customary and treaty international legal obligations imposing responsibilities on sovereign states to the international community in key international law fields such as international human rights law, international criminal law and international environmental law. These new developments demand academic study and this book fills this lacuna by rigorously considering all of these developments as part of a trend towards assumption of international responsibility. This must include the responsibility on the part of all states to respond to threats of genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansings and large-scale war crimes. The discussion surrounding aggravated state responsibility is also explored, with the author concluding that this emerging norm within international law is closely related to the responsibility to protect in its imposition of an international responsibility to act in response to an international wrong. This book will be of great interest to scholars on international law, the law of armed conflict, security studies and IR in general.




International Crimes of State


Book Description




Immunity of Heads of State and State Officials for International Crimes


Book Description

Ramona Pedretti offers, for the first time, a comprehensive assessment of the rules of customary international law relating to immunity of Heads of State and other State officials in the context of crimes pursuant to international law and their relationship with core principles of international law. The book gives the reader a full picture of this topical issue which is located at the heart of today's development of international law. It contains an in-depth evaluation of a vast amount of relevant material, ranging from domestic laws to judicial decisions of domestic and international courts. The fact that the International Law Commission is deliberating the issue with a view to drafting an international treaty underscores the book's importance and timeliness.