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The Attribution of Responsibility and Modes of Liability in International Criminal Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

MILES JACKSON
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Abstract

In 2012, James Stewart published an article in this journal. The piece – ‘The End of “Modes of Liability” for International Crimes’ – argued for the abolition of accomplice liability in international criminal law and the adoption of a unitary model of participation in crime. This article argues that Stewart's proposal is flawed. As a matter of moral responsibility, the distinction between principals and accomplices follows from the recognition of individuals as moral agents. Turning to ordinary criminal responsibility, neither practical benefits nor expressive benefits nor the mitigating effects of the distinctive institution of criminal sentencing justifies the abolition of the distinction between principals and accomplices. Moreover, despite the collective nature of many international crimes, international criminal law ought to strive to accurately differentiate, in the attribution of responsibility, among participants. Only a differentiated model of participation can accurately and defensibly capture the different ways that individuals contribute to wrongdoing.

Keywords

attributioncomplicitymodes of liabilityperpetrationsentencing
Type
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURTS AND TRIBUNALS
Information
Leiden Journal of International Law , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 879 - 895
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 2016 

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References

1 Stewart, J., ‘The End of “Modes of Liability” for International Crimes’, (2012) 25 LJIL 165 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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4 Stewart, supra note 1, at 169.

5 Ibid., at 165.

6 Cf. C. Roxin, Täterschaft und Tatherrschaft (1963).

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8 C. Kutz, Complicity: Ethics and Law for a Collective Age (2000), 3–4.

9 See E. van Sliedregt, Individual Criminal Responsibility in International Law (2012), 70 describing such an approach as a ‘pure’ differentiated model of responsibility.

10 Art. 6, 1945 Charter of the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg) annexed to Agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major War Criminals of the European Axis, 82 UNTS 279. See also Art. 5(c), 1946 Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, TIAS No 1589.

11 Art. 7, Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia adopted by UNSC Res 827 (25 May 1993) UN Doc. S/RES/827; Art. 6, Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda adopted by UNSC Res 955 (8 November 1994) UN Doc. S/RES/955.

12 Art. 25, 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 2187 UNTS 90.

13 Stewart, supra note 1, at 167.

14 Ibid.

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22 Ibid., at 199–200. See, e.g., Prosecutor v. Blaškić, Judgement, Case No. IT-95-14-A, Appeals Chamber, 29 July 2004, at para. 48.

23 See, e.g., Prosecutor v. Simić, Judgement, Case No. IT-95-9-A, Appeals Chamber, 28 November 2006, para. 85; Prosecutor v. Mrkšić and Šljivančanin, Judgement, Case No. IT-95-13/1-A, Appeals Chamber, 5 May 2009 (‘Mrkšić and Šljivančanin appeal judgement’), para. 81.

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25 Stewart, supra note 1, at 204.

26 Ibid., at 207.

27 Ibid., at 207–8.

28 Ibid., at 213–18.

29 As the proverb goes: ‘success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan’.

30 See generally P. Strawson, Freedom and Resentment and Other Essays (1974); T. Scanlon, Moral Dimensions: Permissibility, Meaning, Blame (2008).

31 For further discussion of the relationship between different kinds of reactive attitudes and responsibility, see R. Wallace, Responsibility and the Moral Sentiments (1994).

32 Gardner, supra note 7, at 132. See also Kutz, supra note 8, at 3–4.

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40 See 18 USC § 2 (1994) (USA); Accessories and Abettors Act 1861, as amended by Schedule 12 to the Criminal Law Act 1977, s 8.

41 Gardner, supra note 7, at 132.

42 K.J.M. Smith, A Modern Treatise on the Law of Criminal Complicity (1991); Gardner, supra note 7, at 128. Cf. C. Kutz, ‘Causeless Complicity’ (2007) 1 Criminal Law and Philosophy 289 for a discussion of causal indeterminacy in the relations between the accomplice and principal.

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47 Feinberg, supra note 37, at 685.

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50 See 18 USC § 2; Accessories and Abettors Act, s. 8. On doctrinal differentiation, differentiation in the attribution of responsibility, and differentiation in sentencing, see Jackson, supra note 2, at 22–6.

51 Stewart, supra note 1, at 213–18.

52 Ibid.

53 Stewart, supra note 1, at 208.

54 Weigend, supra note 3.

55 This is leaving aside the legality concerns that accompany broad sentencing discretion. See Ohlin, supra note 3.

56 See Damaška, supra note 15; Robinson, supra note 16; Ohlin, supra note 16.

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61 Ibid., at 212.

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65 Ibid., at 212–13.

66 J.L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words (1962) 150.

67 See generally W. Alston, Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning (2000) 88–9.

68 See Ohlin, supra note 3.

69 Stewart, supra note 1, at 207.

70 Ohlin, supra note 3.

71 Ibid.

72 Ibid. See also Horder, J., ‘Rethinking Non-Fatal Offences against the Person’, (1994) 14 OJLS 335, at 339CrossRefGoogle Scholar discussing the opposite perils of particularism and moral vacuity.

73 See H.L.A. Hart, Punishment and Responsibility: Essays in the Philosophy of Law (1968); A. von Hirsch and A. Ashworth, Proportionate Sentencing: Exploring the Principles (2005).

74 See, e.g., the German approach in StGB § 25; StGB § 26; StGB § 27. To be sure, a differentiated model of participation does not necessitate a normative model of principalship. See further N. Jain, Perpetrators and Accessories in International Criminal Law (2014).

75 A. Eser, ‘Individual Criminal Responsibility’, in A. Cassese et al. (eds.), The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Commentary—Vol I (2002), 767 at 782.

76 Van Sliedregt, supra note 9, at 71–2. See also Roxin, supra note 6; J. Vogel, ‘How to Determine Individual Criminal Responsibility in Systemic Contexts: Twelve Models’ (2002) Cahiers de Défense Sociale 151.

77 See, e.g., M. Osiel, Making Sense of Mass Atrocity (2009); M. Drumbl, Atrocity, Punishment and International Law (2007).

78 See, e.g., Art. 1, 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 78 UNTS 277; Art. 7 Rome Statute, supra note 12.

79 See Jackson, supra note 2, at 17.

80 See P. Clark, The Gacaca Courts, Post-Genocide Justice and Reconciliation in Rwanda: Justice without Lawyers (2010); Burke-White, W., ‘Proactive Complementarity: The International Criminal Court and National Courts in the Rome System of International Justice’, (2008) 49 Harvard International Law Journal 53 Google Scholar.

81 Nollkaemper, A., ‘Systemic Effects of International Responsibility for International Crimes’, (2010) 8 Santa Clara Journal of International Law 313 Google Scholar. See also A. Nollkaemper and H. van der Wilt (eds.), System Criminality in International Law (2009).

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85 J. Ohlin, ‘The Co-Perpetrator Model of Joint Criminal Enterprise’, in A. Klip and G. Sluiter (eds.), Annotated Leading Cases of International Criminal Tribunals: The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia 2003 – Volume 14 (2008), 739 at 742–4.

86 See Werle and Burghardt, supra note 2, at 315–18.

87 See Vest, H., ‘Problems of Participation – Unitarian, Differentiated Approach, or Something Else’, (2014) 12 JICJ 295, at 302–3Google Scholar.

88 See Werle and Burghardt, supra note 2, at 311 for an argument that the huge divergence in the responsibility of participants in international crimes makes it more important, rather than less important, for international criminal law to differentiate among participants compared to ordinary municipal criminal law.

89 Public Prosecutor v. van Anraat, District Court, The Hague, Case No. 09/751003-04, 23 December 2005.

90 Ibid.

91 Ibid. See also Prosecutor v. van Anraat, Dutch Supreme Court, 30 June 2009, Case No. 07/10742, 30 June 2009; van der Wilt, H., ‘Genocide, Complicity in Genocide and International v. Domestic Jurisdiction: Reflections on the van Anraat Case’, (2006) 4 JICJ 239 Google Scholar.

92 See, e.g., Zyklon B—Trial of Bruno Tesch and Two Others (8 March 1946) (1947) I LRTWC 93; The Jaluit Atoll Case (13 December 1945) (1947) 1 LRTWC 71, 73 (United States Military Commission, Marshall Islands); Mrkšić and Šljivančanin appeal judgement, supra note 23; Prosecutor v. Taylor, Judgement, SCSL-03-01-A, AC, SCSL, 26 September 2013. Cf. Art. 25(3)(c) Rome Statute, supra note 12; Prosecutor v. Perišić, Judgement, Case No. IT-04-81-A, Appeals Chamber, 28 February 2013.

93 Stewart, supra note 1, at 190–9.

94 Ibid., at 198.

95 Van Sliedregt, supra note 9, at 70–2.

96 In respect of the Rome Statute, see Ambos, K., ‘The First Judgment of the International Criminal Court (Prosecutor v. Lubanga): A Comprehensive Analysis of the Legal Issues, (2012) 12 International Criminal Law Review 115 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Werle and Burghardt, supra note 2; Vest, supra note 87.

97 See Smith, supra note 42, at 46: ‘There is no natural or automatically ascertainable proper level of mental involvement or culpability; it is a normative issue of what mental states, bearing in mind the social circumstances and consequences and possibilities for control, ought to be taken as appropriate subjects of criminal sanctions.’

98 See Werle, G., ‘Individual Criminal Responsibility in Article 25 ICC Statute’, (2007) 5 JICJ 953, at 969–70Google Scholar; Jackson, supra note 2, at 46–54.

99 Perišić, supra note 92.

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