System Criminality in International Law

How does international law respond to situations where collective entities order, encourage or allow the committing of international crimes?

André Nollkaemper (Edited by), Harmen van der Wilt (Edited by)

9780521763561, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 July 2009

400 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.2 cm, 0.75 kg

International crimes, such as crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, are committed by individuals. However, individuals rarely commit such crimes for their own profit. Instead, such crimes are often caused by collective entities. Notable examples include the 'dirty war' in Argentina in the 1970s and 1980s, the atrocities committed during the Balkan Wars in the early 1990s and the crimes committed during the ongoing armed conflicts in the Darfur area in Sudan. Referring to Darfur, the Prosecutor of the ICC noted in 2008 that, although he had indicted a few individuals, 'the information gathered points to an ongoing pattern of crimes committed with the mobilisation of the whole state apparatus'. This book reviews the main legal avenues that are available within the international legal order to address the increasingly important problem of system criminality and identifies possible improvements.

1. Introduction A. Nollkaemper
2. The policy context of international crimes H. C. Kelman
3. Why organizations kill – and get away with it: the failure of law to cope with crime in organizations M. Punch
4. Men and abstract entities: individual responsibility and collective guilt in international criminal law G. Simpson
5. A historical perspective: from collective to individual responsibility and back A. Gattini
6. Command responsibility and organisationsherrschaft: ways of attributing international crimes to the 'most responsible' K. Ambos
7. Joint criminal enterprise and functional perpetration H. van der Wilt
8. System criminality at the ICTY E. van Sliedrecht
9. Criminality of organisations under international law N. Jørgensen
10. Criminality of organisations: lessons from domestic law – a comparative perspective A. Eser
11. The collective accountability of organized armed groups for system crimes J. Kleffner
12. Assumptions and presuppositions: state responsibility for system crimes I. Scobbie
13. State responsibility for international crimes A. Zimmermann and M. Teichmann
14. Responses of political organs to crimes by states N. White
15. Conclusions and outlook A. Nollkaemper and H. van der Wilt.

Subject Areas: International criminal law [LBBZ], Public international law [LBB]