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Review article

https://doi.org/10.31141/zrpfs.2017.54.125.731

Necessity and coercion in international law- the Erdemovic case in ICTY as the beginning of Hague Court Proceedings

Bartul Marušić


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Abstract

Necessity and duress are circumstances that exclude unlawfulness and existence of a criminal offence. However, proportionality is the most significant and most widely adopted condition distinguishing whether a person will be acquitted, released from punishment, or whether coercion and necessity will merely be circumstances reducing the punishment. There are no uniform criteria in international criminal law, and the Hague Tribunal faced a challenging task of applying those two institutes to grave breaches of the international law of armed conflict and humanitarian law in the Erdemović case. Moreover, under the circumstances of the very largest genocide in Europe since World War II. In the first part, the author describes the circumstances of the case as per the final judgement and a chronological development in sensibilities of courts and laws with respect to said institutes, primarily referring to the Anglo-Saxon legal heritage and precedent judgements that the Hague Tribunal relies upon the most, but also to the national law and national jurisdiction in a context of Continental European “civil law” legal system. In the second part, along with doctrinal and threshold matters inevitably related to the teleology of the two legal concepts, the author elaborates on the issues with his own observations and opinions, concluding as to why the Hague verdict was justified and has been essential for further development of “anti-war” law.

Keywords

extreme necessity; duress; international criminal law; ICTY; Erdemovic

Hrčak ID:

186733

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/186733

Publication date:

19.9.2017.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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