The Subjects of International Criminal Law: Ratione Personae

Abstract

The subjects of international law have historically been states and intergovernmental organizations. Individuals became subjects of that legal discipline after World War II by virtue of the establishment of their criminal responsibility under international law, irrespective of the dictates of national law. This chapter discusses the international criminal responsibility of individuals, organizations, and states. The first of these is well established in international criminal law (ICL). The second is unsettled, as there is some precedent for it and a growing trend to include such a concept of criminal responsibility in domestic legal systems. The third, state criminal responsibility, had somewhat of a beginning in the reparations regime that followed WWI, but it has been rejected, except that it exists de facto in the form of U.N. sanctions. The issue of head of state immunity arises in three different contexts, and a different law applies to each.Keywords:international criminal law (ICL); international criminal responsibility; state criminal responsibility; state immunity