International Responsibility of Individuals and States in light of the Control Criteria

This article reviews the recent judgment of the International Court of Justice in Bosnia v. Serbia together with the Nicaragua Judgment, International Law Commission’s Draft on State Responsibility and the judgment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in Tadic case to highlight the dispute between the ICJ and the ICTY on the appropriate legal standard for the attribution of state responsibility. The ICJ in its Bosnia judgment discussed the question of whether the acts of genocide carried out at Serbrenica must be attributed to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It applied the “effective control” test set out in Nicaragua, while reaching a negative conclusion, the court rejected the “overall control” test enunciated by the ICTY.