The paper is divided into five chapters. The first chapter briefly reveals the content, defines international criminal offenses and war crimes, in particular genocide and crimes against humanity, and the ways in which the protection of values protected by international law is ensured. The third chapter cites war crimes that were incriminated by Croatian criminal legislation that applied tempore criminis, during the Homeland War, with special reference to genocide and crimes against humanity as the most frequent incrimination in war crimes trials before the courts of the Republic of Croatia. The fourth chapter presents two cases before the courts of the Republic of Croatia, war crimes in Škabrnja and on the Korana bridge. The fifth chapter deals with the issue of command responsibility and the ways in which it is regulated in international documents and in Croatian material criminal law, as well as presenting with the most significant cases of war crimes under the jurisdiction of the courts of the Republic of Croatia, in particular Rahim Ademi and Mirko Norac. The paper deals solely with the issue of the application of material criminal law and does not deal with war crimes trials from the aspectof the application of procedural criminal law. Also the paper is based entirely on the final judgments.