Analysis On War Crime In Public International Law

War-crime is one of the most serious crimes in the word. It developed fromregulating only the means of warfare to the field of international humanitarian law,from applying merely to international armed confrontations to both international anddomestic ones, and from ruling state responsibilities to individual criminalresponsibilities. Complied with the theme of peace and development in internationalsociety, this is not only a certain result of international human rights’ development,but also as well as an important reflection of social civilization progress.The thesis introduces mainly the concept, historical evolution, elements andresponsibilities of war crimes. First, from the perspective of international legislationand judicial practice, it elaborates how war emerged as a natural state right and now isprohibited as crimes of war by the international society, and how connotation andextension of war crimes’ definition are continuously expanding.Second, it studies the elements of war crimes including aspects of subject,objective element and subjective element. The subject of war crimes is discussedbetween the points of acting subject and responsible subject. The objective element isanalyzed from harmful acts, harmful consequences and causality. Upon briefing thesubjective element, it reaches the conclusion that the state of mind that constitutes warcrimes is clear knowledge or intention. Negligence may be held liable under specificcircumstances.Third, it examines the responsibility model of war crimes from two differentangles of state responsibilities and individual responsibilities, which natures arefollowing distinguished. War crimes accountability mechanisms are demonstrated bythe outcome, elements and exclusion of responsibilities. A continuous developmentand improvement of war crimes is finally proved during the analysis process.