Causation vs. Background Events

Abstract

This chapter examines the problem of causation. An intelligent approach to drafting a criminal code deliberately avoids certain problematic philosophical issues. Among these are the nature of human action; the purposes of punishment; and, most importantly, the problem of causation. The problem of causation runs through the crimes defined by the Rome Statute. The issue is implicit, even if the drafter wisely declined to define the concept. It is obvious that a concern for impunidad and the fate of victims presuppose the harm that has occurred to a defined victim, which implies that the harm must have been caused by the crimes defined by the Rome Statute. The chapter then considers the notion of causal energy, which explains the rise of comparative negligence in tort law.