By Athina Sachoulidou
Abstract:
This article discusses the involvement of corporations in human rights violations amounting to international crimes through the lens of International Criminal Law (ICL). It briefly examines how corporate liability for criminal conduct was dealt with in the Nuremberg times and, subsequently, shifts the focus onto the recent history of ICL and the ratione personae jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). In this context, it explains why legal persons fall outside the scope of the ICC jurisdiction and what kind of amendments would be necessary to overturn the status quo as well as the difficulties associated with them. Against this backdrop, it concludes by stressing the need for setting alternative priorities to facilitate access to justice for victims. In the case of the ICC, this would mean focusing on the individual wrongdoers and holding them accountable by employing already existing schemes of liability, like that of superior responsibility. In addition, it is necessary to further national schemes of corporate liability ex crimine to ensure that international crimes fall into their scope (where this is not already the case).
Published:
2022