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LLM / Department of Public Law / Since the birth of international criminal justice, the imposition of individual criminal responsibility has been expanded as evidenced by the instruments establishing the institutional mechanisms, at least, from Nuremberg to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The prescriptions of the imposition of criminal responsibility in international criminal law take cognizance of the fact that both top civilian and military personnel commit heinous crimes. However, until the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR), such prescriptions covering individuals who find themselves within informal civilian relationships had not earned much focus, be it at the identification of responsible individuals to their prosecution and conviction. Events in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide that led to the establishment of the ICTR revealed the involvement of this category of individuals. While their involvement took diverse forms, at different times, only some of them were identified and successfully prosecuted and convicted for the offences over which the ICTR has jurisdiction. This category of individuals (those falling under the rubric of informal civilian relationships) has not been addressed by scholarship on international crimes. This dissertation identifies such individuals, examines the allegations against them, the factual findings of the different Trial Chambers and develops a set of rules as well as lessons to be learnt from the trial and appellate proceedings

This study examines the prospects for accountability for international crimes committed in South Sudan since the civil conflict began in December 2013 and resulted in the deaths of at least 400,000 people and displacement of 2.24 million people by September 2018. It argues that both government and opposition forces have committed serious crimes under international law. It claims that since the start of the civil war, the Government of South Sudan has allowed impunity for international crimes to flourish by pursuing only the Terrain case. The study further argues South Sudan has neglected to investigate, prosecute, and punish suspects of international crimes. It also crippled the current judicial system to the extent that it cannot provide justice to victims of the civil war due to a severe lack of independence and political interference. This not only shows the lack of political will to address the critical issue of accountability for international crimes, but it feeds impunity and undermines South Sudan's ability to meet its international obligations. It also shows a total disregard for the victims' rights to truth, justice, and reparations. For this reason, this study focuses on the Hybrid Court of South Sudan (HCSS) as one of the accountability measures envisioned to be established under Chapter 5 of the R-ARCSS. The study argues that in the absence of an independent, impartial, and competent judicial system in South Sudan, the HCSS remains the only meaningful and effective alternative justice mechanism to address the plight of the victims of the civil war. The study thus looks at how it could be utilized to ensure that South Sudan adheres to its international obligations. If the HCSS is not established, the study proposes the establishment of an Adhoc court by the African Union and the United Nations. / Mini Dissertation (LLM (Human Rights and Democratization in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Centre for Human Rights , University of Pretoria / Centre for Human Rights / LLM (Human Rights and Democratization in Africa) / Unrestricted

Dramatic changes in the international system since the early nineties, namely the end of the Cold War and the post-9/11 ascendancy of the Bush Doctrine, have left many to wonder whether Cold War era influence strategies such as deterrence, compellence, and engagement are viable against new U.S. threats-rogue states. This thesis will examine U.S. efforts between 1986 and 2004 to convince Libya to cease its support for international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMD). U.S. influence strategy towards Libya was a short term failure and a long term success. The compellence and deterrence policies established by President Reagan and strengthened by later administrations served to isolate Libya economically and diplomatically and set the conditions for successful conditional engagement. Positive behavior change by Libya began first with the Clinton Administration's introduction of conditional engagement. The Bush Administration, benefiting from years of Libyan isolation and the positive response to conditional engagement, continued to engage Libya in an incremental fashion. Libya renounced its terrorist ties in August 2003 and weapons of mass destruction in December 2003. Since then Tripoli has taken actionable steps to verify this change of policy and both governments are currently on course for reconciliation.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Law, 2015. / At present, international law has not succeeded in establishing a way through which multinational corporations (MNCs) can be regulated effectively and compelled to adhere to international human rights standards. This poses a problem for states that rely heavily on the investment of MNCs for economic development. African states in particular compete for investment by reducing their regulatory mechanisms in order to attract MNCs. This allows MNCs to engage in practices that violate human rights and contribute to the commission of international crimes. This thesis seeks to address this problem by exploring how MNCs can be held criminally liable in international law if they are involved in serious human rights abuses and international crimes. In the twentieth century, two seminal events in international criminal justice illustrate that there was evidence that the notion of holding multinational corporations criminally liable was possible. These include i) the jurisprudence of the Allied Tribunals at Nuremberg after World War II which contemplated the possibility of corporate criminal liability and ii) the negotiations during the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the 1990s which considered proposals for the extension of criminal liability to corporations. At the national level, many states provide for corporate criminal liability. This is often derived from the establishment of criminal liability of an official of the corporation. The United Kingdom and Australia, however, have successfully set out how a corporation may itself be found criminally liable without the need to derive its criminal liability from an official. These developments show that the idea of holding MNCs criminally liable, either through a derivative or non-derivative process, is possible and achievable. In particular, this thesis proposes that MNCs can be found criminally liable for aiding and abetting international crimes under Article 25(3)(c) of the Statute of the ICC. In proposing a way through which this can be achieved, this thesis does two things: i) it extracts principles of non-derivative criminal liability established in the United Kingdom and Australia and ii) it develops a theory of corporate criminal liability for aiding and abetting international crimes that incorporates these principles. This theory underpins the proposed new approach to the establishment of corporate criminal liability for aiding and abetting in the ICC.

In recent decades, the prospect of holding corporations and their representatives responsible for international crimes has emerged as an important component of a number of interlinked fields. While these ideas have become widely acknowledged, the scope of the relationship between commerce and international criminal justice has remained poorly understood among theorists and seldom implemented in practice. In large part, both these phenomena result from a lack of familiarity with the diverse fields one must traverse in order to speak with any degree of confidence about the role of international criminal justice as a means of regulating globalized markets. In what follows, I introduce how my work for the JSD has explored three different but necessary areas of law that underpin these analyses. Specifically, this final essay provides a narrative of how this work emerged for me, the normative hypotheses that have informed my JSD, and the three core projects I have undertaken in international criminal law, the theory of complicity, and corporate criminal liability to move this agenda forward.

The International Criminal Court (hereinafter ICC) is a new permanent international judicial tribunal which plays an important role in combating international crimes and dispensing justice. It was established in 1998 by the international community after much effort and compromise. It is designed to be an independent international body, with the autonomy to determine its budget and control its funding. This study discusses how the ICC acts as a mechanism to create a nexus between international criminal and humanitarian law by prosecuting crimes like genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression, that fall within its jurisdiction. The study seeks to show that the international jurisdiction of the ICC is a potential safeguard against arbitrary national criminal procedures in respect of those who are accused of committing serious international crimes. The ICC's jurisdiction is complementary to that of national courts that are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute these crimes. National judicial systems are still required to play a primary role in combating international crimes and it is important that states, organisations and individuals assist the ICC if it is to become an effective deterrent to perpetrators of international crimes. The rationale behind the ICC's establishment is that the international community is under a legal obligation to prosecute violations of international law in either national or international courts. The study also analyses the role of the ICC in balancing the rights of the victims and the rights of the accused by applying the guarantees and safeguards for conducting fair trials set out in the Rome Treaty. In this way, it seeks to show that prosecuting and punishing perpetrators of international crimes is an important contributing factor in the creation of a human rights' culture, while also serving as a deterrent to prospective violators of international human rights and humanitarian law. / Thesis (LL.M)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

Doctor Legum - LLD / This contribution looks at the relevance of conspiracy in international criminal law. It establishes that conspiracy was introduced into international criminal law for purposes of prevention and to combat the collective nature of participation in commission of international crimes. Its use as a tool of accountability has, however, been affected by conflicting conceptual perceptions of conspiracy from common law and civil law countries. This conflict is displayed in the decisions on conspiracy by the international criminal tribunals, and finally culminates into the exclusion of punishment of conspiracy in the Rome Statute. It is questionable whether this latest development on the law of conspiracy was a prudent decision. While the function of conspiracy as a mode of liability is satisfactorily covered by the modes of participation in the Rome Statute, its function as a purely inchoate crime used to punish incomplete crimes is missing. This study creates a case for inclusion in the Rome Statute, punishment of conspiracies involving international crimes that do not extend beyond the conceptual stage, to reinforce the Statute’s purpose of prevention. This conspiracy should reflect the characteristics of conspiracy acceptable under both common law and civil law systems. This means excluding the far reaching and often problematic characteristics exemplified in the common law conspiracy.