Abstract
I. INTRODUCTION On July 14, 1997, the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Former Yugoslavia Since 1991 (International Tribunal) sentenced Mr. Dusko Tadic to twenty years in prison. 1 A three-judge Trial Chamber of the International Tribunal unanimously found Tadic guilty of eleven counts on May 7, 1997, 2 but Presiding Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald (from the United States), wrote a separate and dissenting opinion on the issue of what constitutes the appropriate test of de facto agency under international law. 3 In other words, when does an individual, who is not a de jure official, constitute an agent of the state, and when is that state responsible for the acts of said individual? This question remains unsettled under international law because international case law is contradictory, no treaty in force addresses this subject, and rules of attribution have not risen to the level of customary international law. To settle the issue, members of the international community should ratify Article 8 of the Draft Articles on State Responsibility (Draft Articles) 4 which imposes international responsibility on a state for the acts of its de facto agents. If the international community ratifies Article 8, it may consider an individual's acts as those of a state if the acts possess a public character. Moreover, the international community may hold a state responsible for an act of an individual even in the absence of any formal ...