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International Law

International criminal law

Joshua L. Root

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Some Other Men's Rea? The Nature Of Command Responsibility In The Rome Statute, Joshua Root Aug 2013

Some Other Men's Rea? The Nature Of Command Responsibility In The Rome Statute, Joshua Root

Joshua L. Root

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court provides for Command Responsibility. The provision addressing this is ambiguous and raises a number of interpretive issues. Command responsibility can either be understood as a mode of liability – a way of holding commanders vicariously responsible for the acts of their subordinates, or it can be understood as a separate, distinct crime based on the commander’s dereliction of his supervisory duties. The Rome Statute is not clear on the matter and points in both directions. In recent years, the mode of liability approach has come under increasing scrutiny by academics and by …


"First, Do No Harm:" Interpreting The Crime Of Aggression To Exclude Humanitarian Intervention, Joshua L. Root Jul 2013

"First, Do No Harm:" Interpreting The Crime Of Aggression To Exclude Humanitarian Intervention, Joshua L. Root

Joshua L. Root

The yet to be implemented Article 8 bis of the Rome Statute criminalizes, as the crime of aggression, acts of aggression which by their “character, gravity and scale” constitute a “manifest violation” of the Charter of the United Nations. This article argues that Article 8 bis must be construed so as to exclude from the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction uses of force which are facial violations of the UN Charter but which nonetheless comport with the principles and purposes of the Charter, such as bona fide humanitarian intervention unauthorized by the Security Council. This article applies the Vienna Convention on …