Article

A justification of command responsibility

Darryl Robinson

• Criminal law forum, Vol. 28, 2017, p. 633-668

English

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In this article, the author advances a culpability-based justification for command responsibility. Command responsibility has attracted powerful, principled criticisms, particularly that its controversial “should have known” fault standard may breach the culpability principle. Scholars are right to raise such questions, as a negligence-based mode of accessory liability seems to chafe against our analytical constructs. However, the author argues, in three steps, that the intuition of justice underlying the doctrine is sound. An upshot of this analysis is that the “should have known” standard in the ICC Statute, rather than being shunned, should be embraced. While Tribunal jurisprudence shied away from criminal negligence due to culpability concerns, the author argues that the “should have known” standard actually maps better onto personal culpability than the rival formulations developed by the Tribunals.

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