ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the notion of complicity under international law and explores whether Italy should be held indirectly responsible for complicity. The provision of a rule on complicity is an important step for the rule of law. The chapter also examines the notion of complicity as established in Article 16 of the International Law Commission Draft Articles on the Responsibility of States (ASR). Although the First report of Rapporteur Ago clearly affirmed that the provision would be only part of the progressive development of international law, in the Bosnian Genocide case, the International Court of Justice held that responsibility for aid or assistance under Article 16 ASR is a rule of customary international law. The most debated aspect of the concept of complicity as laid down in Article 16 International Law Commission is the requirement that the act be committed “with knowledge of the circumstances of the internationally wrongful act”.
