IV Individual Criminal Responsibility

This chapter starts with the universal recognition of the concept of individual criminal responsibility in ICL as perhaps the most important result of its historic precedents of Nuremberg and Tokyo. It offers a profound analysis of the ‘historic’ case law on individual criminal responsibility, namely the post WW II case law (Nuremberg, Tokyo, the one by the allied powers and Germany), but also relevant case law on other (mainly) State-sponsored criminality (especially in Latin America). It then turns to the ‘modern’ law of individual criminal responsibility and thus analyses the law and jurisprudence of the UN Ad Hoc Tribunals, of the mixed tribunals and, with a particular emphasis, of the ICC. In terms of doctrine a special focus lies on the forms of participation which enable us to hold the masterminds of the international crimes accountable, that is, joint criminal enterprise (JCE) and indirect perpetration by way of an organization (Organisationsherrschaft). In this respect, the chapter deals with what is probably the most important field of the ongoing theoretization of International Criminal Law.