Chapter

Command responsibility and other grounds of criminal responsibility

Gideon Boas and Lisa Lee

Australia's war crimes trials 1945-51

Leiden ; Boston : Brill Nijhoff, 2016

p. 134-173

English

Since the post-Second World War trials, command responsibility and forms of individual criminal responsibility have substantially developed in international law. During the Australian war crimes trials, however, there was no established doctrine of command responsibility. Elements of command responsibility and grounds of criminal responsibility were nevertheless relied upon. This chapter examines command responsibility and other grounds of criminal responsibility as applied by the Australian Military Courts. It focuses on elements of command responsibility as considered in five important trials involving Japanese commanders and commanding officers accused of failing to exercise their authority to prevent or to stop atrocities perpetrated by their subordinate.

• Australia's war crimes trials 1945-51 / by Georgina Fitzpatrick, Tim McCormack, Narrelle Morris