Editors’ note: Maisie Biggs graduated
with a MSc in Global Crime, Justice and Security from the University of
Edinburgh and holds a LLB from University College London. She is currently
working with the Asser Institute in The Hague.
She has worked for International Justice Mission in South Asia and the
Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) in Amsterdam.
The
Nuremberg Trials were a defining and foundational moment for international
criminal law, and the first instance in which the question of international
legal responsibility of corporate actors, including natural persons and
corporations, was first broached. The Tribunals elected to only prosecute
natural persons, however a brief analysis of the reasoning indicates it was
political rather than legal considerations that led to this distinction. International
law and corporate actors have a storied history that merits drawing the
timeline back earlier than Nuremberg. This is the first in a series of blog posts
exploring the intersection between corporations and international criminal law
(ICL).
As is well known, corporations are not
subjected to the Rome Statute and do not fall under the jurisdiction of the
International Criminal Court (ICC). Yet, as we will show there have been
interesting recent developments at the intersection between ICL and the
activities of corporations. In 2014, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (Al Jadeed S.A.L. & Ms Khayat (STL-14-05)) acknowledged the development of domestic corporate
accountability, and determined that ICL has likewise progressed. Meanwhile,
cases against individuals (such as the ongoing Lundin case in Sweden) or
corporations (such as the Lafarge case in France) involving the activities of
corporations abroad have been initiated by national prosecutors on the basis of
ICL.
These
cases and potential implications will be discussed in more depth in later
posts, however it is interesting that while some academics and judges are
tracking the ostensibly ‘new’ legal movements to subject corporate activities
to greater regulation,[1]
the history of international law itself shows that harmful transnational
commerce has been an issue for a long time, and this is not the first time
international law has been used as a tool against jurisdiction-hopping
corporate crime.More...