The Cognitive Architecture of Culpability: Psychological Dimensions of the Mental Element Standard under Article 30 of the Rome Statute
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Article 30 of the Rome Statute establishes the default threshold for individual criminal responsibility before the International Criminal Court, requiring proof of intent and knowledge as the minimum conditions for culpability. While the provision has attracted considerable doctrinal commentary and judicial attention, its psychological underpinnings remain largely unexplored. This article examines the mental element standard through the lens of cognitive psychology and neuroscience, contending that the dominant interpretations of Article 30 rest on a rationalist model of the mind that does not adequately reflect how intent, awareness, and volition actually operate in human cognition. Drawing on dual process theory, research into implicit and explicit knowledge, and neuroscientific studies of agency and volition, the article demonstrates that the boundaries between intent, knowledge, and recklessness, which ICC judges have sought to police with care, are cognitively permeable. Key ICC decisions, including Lubanga, Katanga, and Bemba, are examined to identify the points at which judicial reasoning has engaged, and at times collided, with psychological realities. The article then proposes a psychologically-informed interpretive framework that preserves the structural commitments of Article 30 while drawing on empirical insights about the human mind. The central submission is that incorporating cognitive science into the interpretive toolkit of international criminal law is not a departure from the values of individual culpability, but a more rigorous and intellectually honest fulfilment of them.
Author: O J Olaoye-Adeola
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7157205157
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