Charles Taylor’s Trial Judgment and the Issue of the Principle of Command Responsibility (Published)
The Principe of command/Superior responsibility is a criminal responsibility of a military commander or a civilian superior for crimes committed by subordinates (militaries or other civilians) under their control if he knew or had reason to know that were committed and that he failed to prevent or to punish the perpetrators. Command responsibility is reflected in two forms: The direct responsibility for action arise when the superior orders the commission of crimes to his subordinates, participates or to aid and the indirect liability by omission, engaged after a failure of the superior to prevent the actions of his troops on the field of Battle or repress their commission. Applying the principle need to meet certain conditions: the Superior-subordinate relationship link the accused and those who committed crimes and the knowledge of the Superior that his subordinate has committed or has a guilt part in the commission of crimes, the failure of the Superior to take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent or to punish those crimes incurs his criminal liability. The main purpose of the present Article is to demonstrate how the criminal liability of Charles Taylor has been retained by the judges of the Sierra Leone’s special tribunal under the principle of command responsibility.
Keywords: Charles Taylor’s Trial Judgment; War Crimes; Crimes Against Humanity; Violation Of The Humanitarian Law; Special Tribunal For Sierra Leone., Command Responsibility