| dc.description.abstract |
Contemporary international criminal law is largely concerned with holding individual defendants responsible for mass atrocities. Because the crimes usuallyinvolve the concerted efforts of many individuals, allocating responsibilityamong those individuals is of critical importance. This Article examines twoliability doctrines – joint criminal enterprise and command responsibility – thatplay a central role in that allocation of guilt in international criminal tribunals.The Article posits a general framework for understanding the development ofinternational criminal law, as an outgrowth of three legal traditions: domesticcriminal law, international human rights law, and transitional justice. Weexplore the application of that framework to the joint criminal enterprise andcommand responsibility doctrines and argue that viewing joint criminal enterpriseand command responsibility through the lens of our framework shows theneed for certain doctrinal reforms. Finally, we discuss the application of liabilitydoctrines developed in the context of inter-national criminal tribunals to prosecutions for international or transnational crimes in other forums, such asdomestic military tribunal prosecutions of terrorists, that do not share the sameroots as international criminal law. |
