Joint Criminal Enterprise as the Transitional Justice Mechanism
Joint Criminal Enterprise as the Transitional Justice Mechanism

Summary/Abstract: This essay is about Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE) and how it helps bring transitional justice. I will analyse JCE and how it helps some of the basic principles of transitional justice: the right to know, the right to justice, and the right to non-reoccurrence. Genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes are supported and carried out by the system. Battling the impunity of those that held high rank positions, who are the ones that were behind the steering wheel, has been a challenge of international criminal law. With the use of the categories, such as common plan and common purpose and knew or should have known, carefully packed into the joint criminal enterprise doctrine, it is possible to make those who had important roles in these kinds of systems responsible before the law. It has become a powerful legal tool that helps in realising the victims' comprehensive rights and the transitional justice principle of the right to justice. Furthermore, assigning criminal liability to individuals for activities carried out by a collective takes into account how widespread and systematic violence occurs and it more precisely depicts the whole story. The victims of these mass atrocities need to know the whole truth and not just certain events taken out of context. JCE has a crucial impact on the process of dismantling institutions that allowed mass atrocities to take place and as a result it helps prevent the repetition of crimes.

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