Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-9klzr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-15T20:13:02.550Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Bridging the Conceptual Chasm: Superior Responsibility as the Missing Link between State and Individual Responsibility under International Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2006

Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Commonly accepted distinctions between state and individual responsibility have created a conceptual chasm between the two sets of legal rules, which is in turn reinforced by different underlying theoretical conceptions of the international system. As a result of this conceptual chasm, current understandings of responsibility fail to describe adequately either the sources of harm to individuals or groups within states, or the changing relationships between individuals, non-state groups, and states. The doctrine of superior responsibility, however, offers the possibility for reconciliation of state and individual responsibility rules, by providing a theoretical basis and a practical method of developing understandings of liability for breaches of fundamental norms that more accurately reflect the channels of responsibility in contemporary conflict situations.

Type
HAGUE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS: International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
Copyright
2005 Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law