Individual Criminal Responsibility in Article 25 ICC Statute

Author: Werle, Gerhard

Source: Journal of International Criminal Justice, Volume 5, Number 4, September 2007 , pp. 953-975(23)

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Abstract:

The collective nature of crimes under international law does not absolve us of the need to determine individual responsibility. Article 25 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) now contains a detailed regulation of individual criminal responsibility. While discussing the elements of various modes of individual criminal responsibility, this essay shows that the most important difference between prior legal frameworks and Article 25(3) ICC Statute lies not in the redefinition of the scope of individual responsibility in international criminal law, but in the systematization of modes of participation. The case is made that Article 25(3) is best construed as a differentiation model with four levels of participation. In this model, modes of participation should be understood as indicative of the degree of individual guilt, and thus as helpful guidelines in sentencing matters. With particular reference to joint commission, the author shows that this concept also leads to a coherent interpretation of the various modes of participation.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqm059

Publication date: 2007-09-01

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JICJ aims to promote a profound collective reflection on the new problems facing international law. Established by a group of distinguished criminal lawyers and international lawyers, JICJ addresses the major problems of justice from the angle of law, jurisprudence, criminology, penal philosophy, and the history of international judicial institutions. It is intended for graduate and post-graduate students, practitioners, academics, government officials, as well as the hundreds of people working for international criminal courts.