Lecture 11: International criminal law

Question 1

The commission of an international crime requires both

Answer 1

Actus reus (guilty act) and mens rea (guilty mind)

Question 2

Actus reus

Answer 2

The guilty act/crime itself

Question 3

Mens rea

Answer 3

That you intended to do it, that you are guilty in your mind

Question 4

According to Article 30 of the Rome Statute, a person is guilty of a crime if they

Answer 4

Intended to commit the act and must or should have known of the consequences

Question 5

Command responsibility

Answer 5

Officers and civilian superiors are responsible for the crimes committed by those under their command if:

1. They knew or should have known that they were being committed; and
2. They failed to take all reasonable measures to prevent its occurence, or to submit the matter for investigation and prosecution if it already happened

Question 6

Superior orders (Nuremberg defense, Article 33 of Rome Statute)

Answer 6

Having been ordered by a superior officer to commit a criminal act is not a defense unless:

1. The person was under legal obligation to obey (e.g. if military law says you must obey superior officers)
2. The person didi not know that the order was unlawful (e.g. illegal)
3. The order was not manifestly unlawful

Question 7

Which orders are always unlawful?

Answer 7

Orders to commit genocide and crimes against humanity

Question 8

Raphael Lemkin conceived the term ‘Genocide’ to…

Answer 8

Describe the particular nature of the Holocaust which was not captured by existing international criminal law

Question 9

Under the Genocide Convention of 1948, a genocide is… (and 5 acts considered genocide)

Answer 9

The commission of any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group;

1. Killing members of the group
2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction
4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
5. Forcibly transferring children og the group to another group

Question 10

What does “in whole or in part” mean regarding genocide?

Answer 10

The acts have to affect a sizeable number and a sizeable portion of the population in question - a question of threshold

Question 11

Genocide does not include the killings of

Answer 11

Members of a political or socio-economic group

Question 12

What is crimes against humanity?

Answer 12

A group of acts which “constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings”, “part of a widespread or systematic practice” against a civilian population

Question 13

Who can commit crimes against humanity?

Answer 13

The acts have to be either
a) part of government policy
OR
b) tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority (but perpetrators do not have to belong to the authority)

Question 14

With international criminal law, many of the actus reus (e.g. murder) overlap between different crimes - the distinction is through

Answer 14

Mens rea (the intent)

Question 15

Name 6 crimes against humanity

Answer 15

1. Murder
2. Enslavement
3. Deportation
4. Torture
5. Enforced disappearance
6. Apartheid

Question 16

What is an enforced disappearance?

Answer 16

The (almost always) murder of dissidents etc., but where there is no body or evidence of what happened to that person - easier to prove than murder

Question 17

What is the crime of apartheid?

Answer 17

“Inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them” - oppression must be widespread, systematic

Question 18

While genocide and crimes against humanity are focused on systemic or widespread conduct, which crimes are focused on individual acts?

Answer 18

War crimes