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The Bemba Trial before the International Criminal Court: Defining an Armed Conflict through the Scope of a Commander’s Responsibility

par Falkowska, Martyna
Référence Revue de droit militaire et de droit de la guerre, 54, 2015-2016, page (264-299)
Publication Publié, 2017-03-01

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

The judgment in which Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Court declared Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo guilty of several counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes is interesting for some of its novelty aspects. One of them pertains to the fact that for the first time the Court issues a conviction based on the principle of command responsibility. This contribution aims to show that the specificity of this mode of responsibility, combined with the legal constrains pertaining to the wording of the Statute, influence the narration of facts and the presentation of legal arguments. This, in turn, echoes the fact that Court seeks to attribute responsibility to a single individual and thus virtually isolates his actions from the larger scope of the conflict and the actions of other actors. The way in which the Court presents and interprets certain contextual elements of the situation shows that this virtual isolation proves somewhat curious within a well-articulated and complex legal reasoning.