Legal aspects of criminal proceedings concerning international core crimes in criminal courts of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina; with focus on questions of individual criminal liability and sentencing issues.

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Sabine Swoboda
• Subject Area: Criminal Law
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 321941942

The project focuses on analyzing criminal judgements by national criminal courts of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on international core crimes committed in the Yugoslavian Civil War of 1991 to 1995. The analysis concentrates on the modes of individual criminal liability, accompanied by a systematic examination of individual sentencing.The project centers on criminal judgements that deal with complex modes of participation, in particular with perpetrators who acted together with or in the context of a collective criminal enterprise or whose contributions substantially furthered the criminal purposes of a collective criminal enterprise.On the basis of these judgements the project discusses traditional and new modes of individual criminal liability (in particular Joint Criminal Enterprise and Command Responsibility).The project examines whether(i) the modes of individual criminal liability that have been developed in customary international law are accepted by national courts as legitimate in the light of constitutional demands and human rights ;(ii) the traditional national modes of individual criminal liability (i.e. perpetrator and participant) are sufficient to depict all aspects and dimensions of the criminal injustice involved in participating in state crimes, and (iii) the terms according to which a post-conflict society assess the individual criminal responsibility of a perpetrator involved in collectively organized mass crimes. The focal point of interest is the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its Section I (the Special Chamber for War Crimes). This Court is the only court in the region that applies special international modes of responsibility like Joint Criminal Enterprise and Command Responsibility (even if only to crimes against humanity). By analyzing modes of individual criminal responsibility the project intends to illuminate specific aspects of the complex picture of collectively commited mass crimes during the Yugoslavian Civil War of 1991 to 1995. The criminological debate currently focuses on how to link the different explanations of how state crime emerges (developed from a micro, meso and macro perspective) in order to develop an overall picture of the macro-criminal activities that result in international core crimes. The criminological debate is, on the one hand, interested in the macro-criminal context of the crimes, but also in the individual contribution to the crime, and it attempts to define different degrees of individual responsibility for the criminal act.The judgements of the national courts of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in particular the judgements of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, are for the most part available online. We will translate these judgements in parts (concerning modes of liability and sentencing), compile corresponding analysis charts, conduct interviews with legal practitioners and - insofar as possible - draft a model form for individualized sentencing.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants