La responsabilità penale delle gerarchie politiche e militari nei crimini contro l'umanità

The reopening of judgements of crimes against humanity committed by the last dictatorship in Argentina, poses again the question of the criminal liability of who, occupying hierarchical positions in the State, did not have direct contact with the attributed facts. Of course, criminal liability is not in discussion, but the way in which the superiors take part in the crime with their subordinates. From the times of Military Juntas Judgement, Argentine justice has followed the theory of domination of the act because of the domination of the will by means of an organization, in order to support the indirect perpetration of the superiors. This theory poses several problems, among which is crucial, the range of the control of the subordinateʼs will by the superior. Nevertheless, this theory, which is not majority, has been adopted by the Bundesgerichtshof and the International Criminal Court. The complexity of this theoretical construction, the effects of its applications on economical crimes, its dependence on empirical factors and, fundamentally, the possibility of reaching reasonable solutions by other ways, lead us to question its utility and applications in tackling the problem of criminal liability of political and military hierarchies of the State in crimes against humanity.