Perpetration and Complicity

Abstract

This chapter examines the concept of complicity. The basic question is whether complicity is a crime in and of itself or a way of assisting another person to commit a crime. On the whole, the idea of complicity in the actions of another has become a standard part of modern legal and moral thought. One no longer thinks of individuals acting solely on their own account but of groups of people interacting in order to produce a crime of shared responsibility. This is particularly true in the crimes of genocide, aggression, and crimes against humanity. As for holding individual actors accountable, as Article 25 of the Rome Statute attempts to do, it would make sense to hold each liable for their causal role in the crime. That is, complicity should be seen not as a crime in itself but as a contribution to the crime of another.