6 - Interpreting the Rome Statute

Summary

Chapter 6 argues that the competition for delivering an authoritative interpretation of the criminal responsibility provisions in Article 25(3), Article 28, and Article 30 Rome Statute continued when the International Criminal Court (ICC) began operation. This chapter shows that the interpretation of Article 25(3) should be understood not only as an indication of the growing influence of civil law norms, as has been often suggested in the legal literature, but also with respect to other important overlapping factors, namely the growing dissatisfaction with joint criminal enterprise and the novel institutional environment of the ICC. Next, Chapter 6 observes that the ICC judges have interpreted in a very restrained manner Article 28 and Article 30, perhaps going beyond the intentions of the Rome Statute drafters. This chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of the (re)construction of criminal responsibility rules at the ICC over a period of 15 years, including recent developments, which took place in 2020–2021 in the Yekatom and Ngaïssona, Abd-Al-Rahman and Said cases, thus highlighting the dynamic nature of international criminal law norms.