1.   Compulsory jurisdiction over and criminalization of war crimes

2.   War crimes in national penal law

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3.   Elements of crime

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  1. Subjective elements – mens rea
    • Negligence

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  • Intent and negligence in indiscriminate attacks
  • Recklessness

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  • Mistake of law in violations of IHL
  • Motives

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  1. Objective elements – actus reus
    • Causing death or serious injury as a necessary result of battlefield crimes
    • War crimes arising from failure to act

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4.   Non-responsibility or mitigated responsibility

  1. Objective causes
    • The defence of superior orders against war crimes prosecution

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  • Can the defences of coercion (duress), necessity and self-defence be invoked against war crimes prosecution?

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  • Defence of lawful acts of hostility in wartime

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  1. Subjective causes
    • The accused was a minor at the time of the crime
    • Mental disorders
    • Duress

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  • Prohibition of criminal liability for escapes by prisoners of war and civilian internees

5.   Inchoate and group criminality

  1. Vicarious liability
  2. Liability for conspiracy to commit war crimes

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  • The responsibility of commanders for war crimes committed by subordinates if they “knew or should have known”

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  • Responsibility for the aid or assistance given to the main perpetrator of the violation
  • Responsibility for incitement to commit a crime or ordering the commission of a crime

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  1. Agreement to commit a crime
  2. Common criminal purpose

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6.   Specific crimes

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  • Genocide

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  • Crimes against humanity

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  • War crimes in non-international armed conflicts

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  • Grave breaches of IHL

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  • Other violations of IHL applicable to international armed conflicts

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  • Misuse of the red cross or red crescent emblem in peacetime

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7.   Multiple convictions for the same conduct

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8.   Punishment

  • Provisions of IHL on the treatment of detainees
  • IHL limitations on the death penalty
  • Escape is not an aggravating circumstance for prisoners of war and civil internees
  • Certain crimes in occupied territory are punishable only by simple imprisonment or internment
  • Determining the sentence

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