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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2010
Much has been written on the question of orders from a superior officer. The problem is too complex for any simple reply. The national legislation to which soldiers are subject renders any member of the armed forces who refuses to carry out an order liable to presocution for a penal offence. In serious cases and especially in time of war military penal codes generally provide that the judge may sentence the offender to death. However the plea of superior orders does not necessarily relieve a military subordinate of penal responsibility for a violation of international humanitarian law committed in carrying out those orders.
1 See, inter alia, the monographs by Ekkehart, Mueller-Rappard, L'ordre supérieur militaire et la responsabilité pénale du subordonné, thesis, Pedone, Paris, 1965 Google Scholar, and Greene, , L.C., Superior orders in national and international law, Sijthoff, Leyden, 1976.Google Scholar
2 Lauterpacht, , Oppenheim's International Law, vol. II, 6th ed., p. 454 Google Scholar, N° 2, with references.
3 Article 8 of the Statute of the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, signed in London, 8 August 1945, reproduced in United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 82, pp. 278–310, No 251.Google Scholar
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6 Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1954 Google Scholar, Doc. A/UN.4/88.
7 Report of the International Law Commission on the Proceedings of its 37th Session, 1986, Proposal by Mr. Doudou Thiam of an article 8C. Document A/41/10.
8 Blishchenko, , Igor, , “Responsabilité en cas de violation du droit international humanitaire”, in Les dimensions Internationales du droit humanitaire, Pedone and UNESCO, Paris, and Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva, 1986, p. 330 Google Scholar; David, , Eric, , “L'Excuse de l'ordre supérieur et l'état de nécessité”, in Revue Belge de Droit International (RBDI), 1978–1979, vol. XIV, p. 70 Google Scholar; Rölling, , Bert, , “Criminal Responsability for Violations of the Laws of War”, in RBDI, 1976–I, vol. XII, p. 20.Google Scholar
9 See Remarks and proposals submitted by the International Committee of the Red Cross, document for the consideration of Governments invited by the Swiss Federal Council to attend the Diplomatic Conference at Geneva (04 21, 1949)Google Scholar—Illrd Revision of the Convention signed at Geneva on July 27, 1929, relative to the treatment of prisoners of war. Art. 119(b), p. 64.
10 Maunoir, J.-P., La répression des crimes de guerre devant les tribunaux français et alliés, thesis, University of Geneva, Law Faculty, 1956, pp. 231 ff.Google Scholar
11 Geneva Conventions of 1949, Articles I 49, II 50, III 129 and IV 146.
12 Geneva Conventions, Articles I 50, II 51, III 130 and IV 147.
13 Article III 130.
14 Article IV 147.
15 CDDH/I/SR.51, in Official Records (O.R.) of the Diplomatic Conference on Humanitarian Law, vol. IX, p. 127, para. 20.Google Scholar
16 See the article by David, , Eric, , op. cit., pp. 68 ff.Google Scholar
17 Including the representative of the United Kingdom at the Diplomatic Conference on Humanitarian Law: see CDDH/I/SR.51, op. cit., p. 131.
18 CDDH/SR.45, Annex, in O. R. CDDH, op. cit., vol. VI, p. 330.Google Scholar
19 Id., p. 329.
20 Id., p. 338.
21 Cassese, , Antonio, , Violenza e Diritto nell'era nucleare, Bari, 1986, p. 147.Google Scholar
22 See the detailed study by Green, L. C., op. cit., 374 Google Scholar pages, in which the author explains the situation in 26 countries representing all the legal traditions and current trends in international society.
23 See the observations in the “Message du Conseil fédéral concernant les Protocoles additionnels aux Conventions de Genève, du 18 février 1981” in Feuille fédérale, 14 04 1981, vol. I, p. 1033.Google Scholar
24 Protocol I, Article 11.
25 Protocol I, Article 85, para. 3.
26 Protocol I, Article 85, para. 4.
27 Protocol I, Article 86, para. 1.
28 Protocol I, Article 86, para. 2.
29 Commentary on the Additional Protocols of 8 June 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, ICRC, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Geneva, 1986, p. 1010 Google Scholar, section 3537.
30 Protocol I, Article 86, para. 2.
31 Commentary…, op. cit., p. 1013 Google Scholar, section 3544.
32 Commentary…, op. cit., p. 1012 Google Scholar, section 3543.
33 Protocol I, Article 43, para. 1.
34 Protocol I, Article 87, para. 1.
35 Protocol I, Article 87, para. 2.
36 In 1847 an internal conflict, the War of the Sonderbund, took place in Switzerland. Guillaume-Henri Dufour was appointed General and Commander-in-Chief of the federal troops. In his “Recommendations on the conduct to be observed towards the inhabitants and troops”, which he ordered the general staffs to follow, he gave orders that civilian persons and property should be respected, that enemy wounded should be looked after as carefully as his own wounded, and that no harm should be done to prisoners. In a P.S. to this document in his own hand, General Dufour (later the first President of the ICRC) added: “High commanders will take care to inculcate these principles in their subordinates, who will in turn inculcate them in their junior officers, so that from the latter they shall be passed to other ranks and serve as a rule for the entire federal army. That army must do everything to prove to the world that it is not a crowd of barbarians. Bern, 4 November 1847, The Commander-in-Chief.” Reverdin, Olivier: “Le Général Guillaume-Henry Dufour, précurseur d'Henry Dunant” in Studies and essays on international humanitarian law and the principles of the Red Cross in honour of Jean Pictet, ed. Swinarski, Christophe, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Geneva-The Hague, 1985, p. 957.Google Scholar
37 Protocol I, Article 87, para. 3.
38 Commentary…, op. cit., p. 1019 Google Scholar, section 3553.
39 Commentary…, op. cit., p. 1018 Google Scholar. section 3550.
40 Blishchenko, , op. cit., p. 343.Google Scholar
41 Swiss Military Penal Code (MFC), Article 61, para. 1.
42 MPC., Article 61, para. 2.
43 MPC., Article 18, para. 1. For “penal responsibility” in international humanitarian law, see Commentary…, op. cit., p. 979 Google Scholar, section 3411.
44 Protocol I, Article 86, para. 2.
45 Protocol I, Article 87, paras. 1 and 2.
46 Protocol I, Article 87.
47 See, inter alia, in Belgium the “Règlement de discipline des forces armées introduit par la loi du 14 Janvier 1975”, Article ii, para. 2, reproduced in David, , op. cit., p. 70 ff.Google Scholar
48 See MPC, Article 45.
49 According to MPC, Article 109.
50 Message du Conseil fédéral, op. cit., p. 1034.
51 Protocol I, Article 88.
52 See Aubert, , Maurice, , “La répression des crimes de guerre dans le cadre des Conventions de Genève et du Protocole additionnel I et l'entraide judiciaire accordée par la Suisse”, in “Schweizerischen Juristen-Zeitung, No. 23, 1983, p. 368 ff.Google Scholar
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54 Protocol I, Article 57, para. 1.
55 O.R. CDDH, op. cit., vol. VI, p. 212 Google Scholar (CDDH/SR.42, para. 43).
56 The term “group” is equivalent in the Swiss army to “battalion” and is used inter alia, in the artillery, including anti-aircraft artillery.
57 Message du Conseil fédéral, op. cit., p. 1063. (Text appears as an Annex to these notes.)
58 The instrument of ratification of the Additional Protocols by the Republic of Austria of 13 August 1982.
59 Protocol I, Article 86.
60 Reservation (attached) with regard to Article 58, Protocol I.
61 Federal order of 9 October 1981 in Feuille Fédérale, 1981, p. 1063 Google Scholar. Recueil systématique du droit fédéral, O.518.521., p. 63.
62 Aubert, , Maurice, , “Réserves…”, op. cit., p. 144.Google Scholar
63 Protocol I, Article 58.
64 Protocol I, Articles 86 and 87.