The Many Faces of Complicity in International Law

Abstract

This paper captures remarks made at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law on a panel devoted to exploring the scope of complicity under international law. My focus is on the evolving international criminal law doctrine as manifested in a line of cases emerging from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. In particular, the paper notes the emergence, and then rejection, of "specific direction" as an element of complicity.

Keywords: Complicity, ICTY, SCSL, Taylor, Perisic, international criminal law, Alien Tort Statute

JEL Classification: K14, K33