See also Command responsibility
OUTLINE
LEGAL SOURCE
DOCUMENT
CASES
- The International Criminal Court [Part A., Art. 33]
- Germany, International Criminal Code [Para. 3]
- Canada, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act [Section 14]
- Belgium, Law on Universal Jurisdiction [Part A., Art. 136(g)(2)]
- British Military Court at Hamburg, The Peleus Trial
- Belgium, Public Prosecutor v. G.W.
- United States, United States v. William L. Calley, Jr.
- Belgium, Belgian Soldiers in Somalia
- Canada, R. v. Brocklebank [Paras 5, 11 and 96-101]
- UN, Statute of the ICTY [Part C., Art. 7(4)]
- ICTY, The Prosecutor v. Mrksic and Sljivancanin [Part A., paras 669 an 673; Part B., paras 64 and 74]
- Colombia, Constitutional Conformity of Protocol II [Paras 36-40]
- Sweden/Syria, Can Armed Groups Issue Judgments?
- Switzerland, Swiss Federal Criminal Court Finds Liberian Commander Guilty of War Crimes
BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES
Suggested readings:
ANDRIES André, “Les limites de la force exécutoire de l’ordre supérieur en droit militaire belge”, in RDMDG, Vol. 8/1, 1969, pp. 79-142.
DAVID Éric, “L’excuse de l’ordre supérieur et l’état de nécessité”, in RBDI, 1978-79, pp. 65-84.
DUFOUR Geneviève, “La défense d’ordres supérieurs existe-t-elle vraiment?”, in IRRC, No. 840, December 2000, pp. 969-992.
GAETA Paola, “The Defense of Superior Order: The Statute of the International Criminal Court versus Customary International Law”, in EJIL, Vol. 10, 1999, pp. 172-191.
GARRAWAY Charles, “Superior Orders and the International Criminal Court: Justice Delivered or Justice Denied?”, in IRRC, No. 836, December 1999, pp. 785-794.
GREEN Leslie C., Superior Orders in National and International Law, Leyden, A.W. Sijthoff, 1976, 374 pp.
STAKER Christopher, “Defence of Superior Orders Revisited”, in Australian Law Journal, Vol. 79, 2005, pp. 431-447.
VERHAEGEN Jacques, “Le refus d’obéissance aux ordres manifestement criminels”, in IRRC, No. 845, March 2002, pp. 35-50.
Further readings:
AUBERT Maurice, “The Question of Superior Orders and the Responsibility of Commanding Officers in the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I) of 8 June 1977”, in IRRC, Vol. 28, No. 263, 1988, pp. 105-120.
OSIEL Mark, Obeying Orders: Atrocity, Military Discipline, and the Law of War, London, Transaction Publishers, 1999, 398 pp.