Responsibility of the Individual under International Law for Crimes Committed in the Context of Armed Conflicts

In areas throughout the world, citizens have been subject to torture and murder during civil wars and other armed conflicts. Many perpetrators of these atrocities are unlikely to be prosecuted on national level; thus if justice is sought, international law must be utilized. To provide further guidance in this area, the International Law Commission submitted a draft in 1991 of its work on a Code that creates new laws, reiterates existing conventional law, and codifies customary international law. This thesis analyzes individual responsibility and the scope ratione personae, which crimes are covered, the process of enforcement and in what international court, and under what types of armed conflict the law applies under both existing international law and the ILC Draft of 1991