ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the influence and role of international criminal law to determine whether people are now living in a more accountable age. The great rise of international criminal law and its application to military operations could result in any diminution of accountability, but there is evidence of this unanticipated outcome. The chapter provides a brief overview of the liberal project of criminalising battlefield conduct and reveals the potential challenges of this endeavour. It also examines the resulting case law coming from the International Criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to locate the relevant legal tests for battlefield conduct and briefly comments on the framework for the International Criminal Court. Liberalism represents one of the dominant schools of modern international relations theory. Through the lens of liberalism, law is seen to possess potential within international statecraft to restrict individual oppression and maximise personal freedom through employment of normative mechanisms.
