Accountability for Collective Wrongdoing

Challenges the paradigm of individual responsibility and examines the idea of holding groups accountable for wrongdoing.

Tracy Isaacs (Edited by), Richard Vernon (Edited by)

9781107002890, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 January 2011

320 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2 cm, 0.55 kg

Ideas of collective responsibility challenge the doctrine of individual responsibility that is the dominant paradigm in law and liberal political theory. But little attention is given to the consequences of holding groups accountable for wrongdoing. Groups are not amenable to punishment in the way that individuals are. Can they be punished – and if so, how – or are other remedies available? The topic crosses the borders of law, philosophy and political science, and in this volume specialists in all three areas contribute their perspectives. They examine the limits of individual criminal liability in addressing atrocity, the meanings of punishment and responsibility, the distribution of group punishment to a group's members, and the means by which collective accountability can be expressed. In doing so, they reflect on the legacy of the Nuremberg Trials, on the philosophical understanding of collective responsibility, and on the place of collective accountability in international political relations.

Introduction Tracy Isaacs
Part I. Collective Accountability in International Law: 1. Collective responsibility and post-conflict justice Mark A. Drumbl
2. State criminality and the ambition of international criminal law David Luban
3. Punishing genocide: a critical reading of the International Court of Justice Anthony F. Lang, Jr
4. Joint criminal enterprise, the Nuremberg precedent, and the concept of 'Grotian moment' Michael P. Scharf
5. Collective responsibility and transnational corporate conduct Sara L. Seck
6. Collective punishment and mass confinement Larry May
Part II. Distributing Accountability: 7. Reparative justice Erin I. Kelly
8. The distributive effect of collective punishment Avia Pasternak
9. Citizen responsibility and the reactive attitudes: blaming Americans for war crimes in Iraq Amy Sepinwall
10. Kicking bodies and damning souls: the danger of harming 'innocent' individuals while punishing 'delinquent' states Toni Erskine
11. Punishing collectives: states or nations? Richard Vernon.

Subject Areas: International humanitarian law [LBBS], International human rights law [LBBR], Armed conflict [JPWS]