Superior Responsibility in International Criminal Law

International humanitarian law places a duty on leaders to ensure that their subordinates respect the rules of armed conflict during their actions. International law provides two primary bases for holding a person criminally responsible: personal criminal responsibility and superior responsibility. This is a study into the latter form of responsibility. Superior responsibility (or command responsibility) is a form of criminal liability, which can be used to establish the criminal responsibility of superiors who have failed to prevent and/or punish their subordinates who are about to commit or have committed serious international crimes in breach of international humanitarian law. This master's thesis is a study of superior responsibility, with the following research questions and objectives: 1) Study the development of superior responsibility, and find out its present form 2) Identify what type of criminal liability it is 3) Present a critical appraisal of superior responsibility; is it needed? The research is conducted with extensive use of case law from various international tribunals, in addition to the publications of legal scholars. Structurally the study is divided into five chapters, 1) Introduction, 2) The history and development of superior responsibility, 3) The elements of superior responsibility, 4) The nature of superior responsibility and 5) Conclusions