Managerial responsibility

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The command responsibility (English: superior responsibility ) is a legal concept in international criminal law , over which a superior for the crimes of subordinates (especially in war crimes and crimes against humanity is made) criminally responsible. Originally military superiors were only recognized the legal concept was therefore as commander responsibility (English: command responsibility ), respectively. In the meantime, this also extends to civilian superiors, so that the more general term of superiors' responsibility is predominantly used.

Origin and development

Hagenbach in court
Bern Chronicle of Diebold Schilling the Elder
Tomoyuki Yamashita after the death sentence was pronounced, Manila 1945

In the 6th century BC, the Chinese general, military strategist and philosopher Sunzi developed the idea in his book The Art of War that commanders should take responsibility for the civilized behavior of their subordinates. In doing so, he influenced many military and political concepts in Asia.

In 1474, Peter von Hagenbach was accused of having allowed rape, mistreatment and murder under his jurisdiction as bailiff on the Upper Rhine. He defended himself with the argument that he had thereby obeyed the superior order of the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold . Even so, he was found guilty and beheaded for being linked to crimes that as a superior he should have prevented.

In 1863 the principle found its way into the Dear Code of the Union Forces during the American Civil War . Superiors were made criminally responsible for the mistreatment of prisoners of war by subordinates.

With the Hague Conventions IV and X of 1907, responsibility was enshrined in international martial law without the threat of punishment and was disregarded by Germany in World War I. Despite the agreement in the Treaty of Versailles to prosecute war crimes, few local trials resulted.

Historic precedent for the application of managerial responsibility in criminal law practice was the 1945 trial of the Japanese General Yamashita Tomoyuki . Two other equally significant trials in Nuremberg were the hostage murder trial and the Wehrmacht High Command trial . In 1977, Supervisors' responsibility was specified in Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Convention .

It has since been used by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia , the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and is part of the established standard of customary international law .

Current legal situation

The legal-dogmatic classification and specific design of the line manager's responsibility is highly controversial in detail. An extensive interpretation is problematic with regard to the criminal guilt principle .

In the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court , the responsibility of superiors is regulated in Article 28. The general requirements include:

  • Existence of a superior-subordinate relationship
  • Knowledge or negligent ignorance of the superior that the subordinate has already committed an international law crime or is about to commit one
  • Failure to take the necessary and appropriate measures to prevent the commission of the crime or to initiate criminal prosecution of the perpetrator

In addition, the responsibility of superiors is an integral part of some national legal systems with, in some cases, very different regulations. In the German International Criminal Code , it is standardized in § 4 , § 13 and § 14 .

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Max Markham: The Evolution of Command Responsibility in International Humanitarian Law , pdf, Penn State Journal of International Affairs, Fall 2011, p. 51.
  2. ^ Trial of Tomoyuki Yamashita (judicial summary) in the Legal Tools database.
  3. ^ Gerhard Werle , Völkerstrafrecht , 3rd edition 2012, Rn. 541, with further references
  4. ^ Gerhard Werle , Völkerstrafrecht , 3rd edition 2012, Rn. 542, mwN; Chantal Meloni: Command Responsibility - Mode of Liability for the Crimes of Subordinates or Separate Offence of the Superior? , in: Journal of International Criminal Justice , 2007, 619ff.
  5. ^ Gerhard Werle , Völkerstrafrecht , 3rd edition 2012, Rn. 545ff; Kai Ambos , Treatise on International Criminal Law, Volume 1: Foundations and General Part , pp. 198ff.