A perspective on the Rome Statute's defence of duress: The role of imminence

Moran, Clare Frances

Abstract

The concept of duress encapsulated in Article 31(1)(d) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is a novel inclusion in a statute created to allow prosecution of serious crimes against the person in international criminal law. Despite being the topic of much debate, the present state of the discourse remains at a fairly superficial level: existing studies focus on a general analysis of the defence and its conditions. This has included the way in which the defences merges necessity and duress, with only a few authors examining the conditions of ‘proportionality’ and ‘necessity.’ This study looks at an underexplored part of the defence: the condition of imminence. The purpose of this work is to explore the idea of imminence and to review whether a clearer definition of duress could have been used, replacing the idea of imminence with the concept of the individual selecting the lesser evil.

Citation

Moran, C. F. (2018). A perspective on the Rome Statute's defence of duress: The role of imminence. International Criminal Law Review, 18(1), 154-177. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-01801001

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 21, 2017
• Publication Date: Feb 15, 2018
• Deposit Date: Sep 22, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 15, 2018
• Journal: International Criminal Law Review
• Print ISSN: 1567-536X
• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 154-177
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-01801001
• Keywords: International criminal law; International Criminal Court; duress; imminence
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/990014
• Contract Date: Sep 22, 2017