The Evolution and Scope of Command Responsibility

Abstract

The statute of the newly established international criminal court provides for command responsibility; the vicarious liability of civilian and military officials for the internationally proscribed conduct of their subordinates. The interpretation of this provision requires an understanding of the doctrine's complex and convoluted evolution. The Geneva Protocol of 1977 created a measure of uniformity. The Geneva Protocol, along with the Delalić decision of the trial chamber of the Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, likely will inform the interpretation of command responsibility under the statute of the International Criminal Court.