How to domesticate the modes of liability for international crimes in the Italian system

The Rome Statute for the first time included a comprehensive general part, thus a set of principles that were absent in the statutes of previous international criminal tribunals. The question is to what extent do these “general principles of international law”, as defined in Articles 22–33 of the Rome Statute, need to be implemented at the domestic level. With an eye on the project of domestic implementation of the Rome Statute in Italy, the question is whether a system, which includes a very broad clause on criminal participation pursuant to the Italian Penal Code, is appropriate and able to encompass the modes of liability for international crimes as envisaged in the Statute (Articles 25 and 28). This paper shows that most modes of liability, like the various forms of commission, aiding and abetting, or ordering, don’t need to be specifically regulated in the Italian legal order, as the general rules are fitting to be applied to international crimes. At the same time, some ad hoc provisions do need to be domesticated, for instance, the content of Article 28 of the Rome Statute on command/superior responsibility. Finally, some remarks are dedicated to the important issue of corporate responsibility for international crimes, illustrating the proposals on the issue as contained in the recent Italian draft Code of International Crimes.