Joint criminal enterprise

Judges at Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal have ruled that former Khmer Rouge leaders can be tried under joint criminal enterprise, a form of liability that places blame on an individual who participated in the design of a plan that involved perpetrating a crime.   The judges ruled that JCE is “applicable to crimes committed under international law, but not to crimes committed under Cambodian law.”   Lawyers for defendants are not so happy with this ruling.

Charles Taylor is being charged under JCE, and the technicalities of this legal principal have been the subject of many a discussion at the Special Court.  Notably, the AFRC trials were also prosecuted partly under JCE, but the trial chamber ultimately decided that a crime of “common purpose” did not fall within the Court’s jurisdiction.  I’m a bit confused as to how the Special Court can say this for one of the trials, yet continue to allow Taylor to be prosecuted under JCE.  A 2007 analysis of the JCE AFRC decision is here.  Here’s an excerpt:

Unlike the AFRC accused, Taylor never actually set foot in Sierra Leone during the conflict and did not appear to have troops there directly under his command when the worst atrocities were committed. His involvement was much less direct than that of the AFRC leaders. Thus, the joint criminal enterprise theory is quite central to the prosecution theory in the case against Taylor.