Chapter

Terror and terrorism in armed conflicts : developments in international criminal law

Julinda Beqiraj

War crimes and the conduct of hostilities : challenges to adjudication and investigation

Cheltenham ; Northampton : E. Elgar, 2013

p. 257-275

English

Beqiraj examines the law governing terrorist acts committed during armed conflict. Focusing on the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), Beqiraj argues that there is a trend toward broadening the actus reus of terrorism offences. She notes that in the Galic case, the trial chambers of the ICTY provided a preliminary definition of the actus reus that required “death or serious injury.” This definition, she argues, was expanded in Miloševic to include “grave consequences,” and again by the SCSL to include acts or threats of violence directed at property. In contrast, Beqiraj argues that the mens rea requirement has changed very little, as it still requires that the “primary purpose” of the act be the spread of terror among civilians. Beqiraj takes issue with this requirement, arguing that it poses a difficult evidentiary challenge for prosecutors. Beqiraj also discusses how the crime of terror relates to other war crimes, and the issue of cumulative convictions. She concludes that although the broadening scope of the crime reflects our moral condemnation of terrorism, judicial creativity must be limited in order to preserve the legitimacy of international criminal justice. [Summary by students at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law (IHRP)]

• War crimes and the conduct of hostilities : challenges to adjudication and investigation / ed. by Fausto Pocar, Marco Pedrazzi, Micaela Frulli