Introduction: An analysis of war crimes and the peculiarities of their qualification indicates the presence of not only responsibility directly for the persons who committed these acts, but also for the persons under whose command the criminals were. International criminal law establishes the institution of “command responsibility,” in which a commander or superior is always responsible for the criminal actions of his subordinates. Therefore, within the framework of the study, the author reveals the theoretical features of this institution and the problems of its legal regulation from the perspective of national criminal legislation. Materials and methods: The work materials are the norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, other national legal acts, the Statute of the International Criminal Court and materials of judicial precedents of international tribunals. Methods of description, analysis, comparison and a systematic research method were used. Results of the study: The results of the work were a final assessment of the analyzed materials regarding the need to make changes and consolidate special offenses that provide for the responsibility of the commander and superior in the event of their subordinates committing war crimes, taking into account the specifics of the subject itself and the nature of the failure to fulfill their powers. Findings and conclusions: Allowed the author to identify the shortcomings of the current criminal legislation and formulate recommendations for changing it.