Journal of International Criminal Justice Advance Access originally published online on March 31, 2007
Journal of International Criminal Justice 2007 5(2):322-331; doi:10.1093/jicj/mqm006
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Editorial Comments |
A Judgment in the Shadow of International Criminal Law
* Head of the International Law Division, the Law School, the College of Management Academic Studies, Israel. [ orna127{at}netvision.net.il]
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Abstract |
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In spite of the inconclusive conclusion of its analysis (to the effect that it cannot be determined whether targeted killings are always legal or always illegal, but the matter must be established on a case by case basis), the judgment delivered by the Israeli Supreme Court is important in many respects. Although it inquires into the legality or illegality of targeted killings from the viewpoint of state responsibility, it also takes into account the possibility of individual criminal liability arising out of acts contrary to international humanitarian law, and suggests the dialectics between these two classes of responsibility. The fact that the judgment sets out guidelines for permissible and impermissible actions involving targeted killings provides the condition for investigating the criminality of some of these actions and indeed invites such investigations by the Israeli judicial authorities.