مجلة البحوث في الحقوق والعلوم السياسية
Volume 12, Numéro 1, Pages 1029-1050
2026-06-30

International Individual Criminal Responsibility: Between Proponents And Opponents

Authors : Nehari Nacéra .

Abstract

The present study seeks to demonstrate that, notwithstanding the convergence of legal systems on the necessity of attributing responsibility to the individual for harmful conduct attributable to him or her, a doctrinal and jurisprudential controversy persists within Public International Law concerning the extent to which international criminal responsibility arises for international crimes committed by individuals. Indeed, contemporary international legal scholarship reveals a clear division between proponents and opponents of the recognition of such responsibility, a division equally reflected within international and domestic criminal judicial systems. Furthermore, jurists of international law have advanced a number of grounds capable of excluding or negating international criminal responsibility, including mental incapacity, intoxication, duress, and self-defence. The study ultimately concludes that individual international criminal responsibility has become firmly established as an autonomous principle within contemporary international law, and is now consistently recognised across diverse international criminal justice systems.

Keywords

Responsibility, criminal, international, individual, crimes