Indirect Perpetration
Thomas Weigend · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2015
Abstract Indirect perpetration is a mode of perpetration provided for in Article 25(3)(a) of the ICC Statute. According to the Statute, indirect perpetration requires that the perpetrator commits the offence ‘through another person’, regardless of whether that other person is criminally responsible. Drawing partly on German doctrine, the ICC has interpreted the concept of indirect perpetration to include using a hierarchical organization for making another person commit a crime (organizational control). The Court has also recognized the possibility that several persons jointly commit a crime as indirect perpetrators (indirect co-perpetration). This expansive view has raised objections inside and outside the ICC. The criticism of indirect co-perpetration does not seem justified, but it may be preferable to apply the concept of indirect perpetration without resorting to an organization as a means of control over another person’s will.