Article

State and individual responsibility in internal conflicts : contours of an evolving relationship

Phoebe Okowa

• Finnish yearbook of international law, Vol. 20, 2009, p. 143-188

English

Photocopies

The literature on international criminal law as well as the practice of states has been primarily pre-occupied with individual prosecutions as a method of accountability for international atrocities. Yet central to some of the recent debates in the literature has been a realisation that the international system of justice has in many ways overstated the overall effectiveness of individual prosecutions. These debates accept that other processes of accountability must now be explored. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has in four significant cases now been called upon to deal with questions of state responsibility for atrocities committed in internal conflicts. The resurgence of surrogate warfare in which outside powers involve themselves in internal conflict also raise the question of the obligations of such powers for atrocities committed by their surrogates in conflict zones. The article examines the varied contexts in which questions of state responsibility for atrocities committed in internal conflict arise and the substantive implication for the emerging law