Command responsibility is a jurisprudential doctrine in international criminal law permitting the prosecution of military commanders for war crimes perpetrated by their subordinates. The first legal implementations of command responsibility are found in the Hague Conventions IV and X (1907).
The U.S. Supreme Court also applied the command responsibility doctrine in the case titled In re Yamashita. The Supreme Court held that commanders are to some extent responsible for their subordinates, and that military commanders have an affirmative duty to take such measures within their power, and appropriate to the circumstances, to protect prisoners of war and the civilian population from violations of the law of war.
[Last updated in August of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team]
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