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2 months ago in International Law By Krirthi
Can mental illness excuse war crimes?
If a soldier commits atrocities while severely mentally ill, does that matter under international law?
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By Varun Answered 1 month ago
It can but the bar is astronomical. The M'Naghten rule (inability to know right from wrong) applies in many jurisdictions. For international crimes, Article 31 of the Rome Statute explicitly accepts mental defect as grounds for excluding criminal responsibility. But the threshold requires proof that the accused completely lacked capacity to appreciate the unlawfulness of their conduct. For leadership-level crimes—planning, ordering this defense has almost never succeeded. The law recognizes mental illness as real. It just demands overwhelming proof that it truly negated moral agency.
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