Beschrijving
At the first ever Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which took place from 31 May until 11 June 2010 in Kampala (Uganda), a major breakthrough has been achieved in the field of international criminal law. At least, that is how the amendments to the Rome Statute regarding the crime of aggression are being conceived. At the Kampala Conference States Parties finally adopted provisions governing the terms of the Court’s ability to investigate and prosecute individuals for the crime of aggression.
Underexposed remained however the fact that different State-structures with different governmental structures may have a different effect on holding individuals criminally liable for international crimes. This leads the author to question whether individual criminal liability for the crime of aggression is not just an empty shell for parliamentary democracies, as their governmental structures are characterized by joint decision-making. After all, how can one establish ‘effective control’ on an individual basis when the crucial decision to deploy the military is taken by a plurality of persons?
The author explores in this book how individual criminal liability for the crime of aggression relates to the internal decision-making process of a parliamentary democracy. For this purpose the governmental structure of The Netherlands serves as an example.
