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Corporations before International Criminal Courts: Implications for the International Criminal Justice Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2016

Abstract

The debate over whether the International Criminal Court should have jurisdiction over corporations has persisted over the years, despite the failure of the legal persons proposals at Rome. For its part, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon determined that it has jurisdiction over corporations for the purpose of crimes against the administration of the Tribunal, albeit not for the substantive crimes over which it adjudicates. Most recently, the African Union has adopted a Protocol that, should it come into operation, would create a new international criminal law section of the African Court of Justice and Human and People's Rights with jurisdiction over corporations committing or complicit in serious crimes impacting Africa. In light of the enduring nature of the proposal that international criminal institutions should directly engage with the problem of commercial corporations implicated in atrocity, this article explores the possible implications for the international criminal justice project were its institutions empowered to address corporate defendants and prosecutors emboldened to pursue cases against them. Drawing on the expressive goals of international criminal justice and concepts of sociological legitimacy, as well as insights from Third World Approaches to International Law, the article suggests that corporate prosecutions, where appropriate, may have a redeeming effect upon the esteem in which some constituent audiences hold international criminal law, as a system of global justice. The article's thesis is then qualified by cautionary thoughts on the redemptive potential of corporate prosecutions.

Type
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURTS AND TRIBUNALS
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 2016 

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References

1 Working Paper on Article 23, Paragraphs 5 and 6, UN Doc. A/CONF.183/C.1/WGGP/L.5/Rev.2 (3 July 1998).

2 Summary Records of the Meetings of the Committee as a Whole, 26th Meeting, UN Doc. A/CONF.183/C.1/SR.26 (8 July 1998), at 10. For a detailed review of the progress of the corporation proposal at Rome, see Clapham, A., ‘The Question of Jurisdiction under International Criminal Law over Legal Persons: Lessons from the Rome Conference’, in Kamminga, M. and Zia-Zarifi, S. (eds.), Liability of Multinational Corporations under International Law (2000), 139 Google Scholar.

3 Art. 25 of the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 2187 UNTS 90 (the Rome Statute).

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7 According to Art. 46E bis, the criminal division of the ACJHPR would exercise jurisdiction over conduct committed on the territory of a state party, where the victim or offender is a national of a state party, or where the conduct in question threatens a vital interest of a state party: Proposed ACJHPR Statute, supra note 6. Practically, however, there are enforcement challenges should the Court attempt to proceed with a case against a corporation without a presence in a state party's territory: see, e.g., J. Gobert and M. Punch, Rethinking Corporate Crime (2003), 146–78 (discussing legal and practical considerations in prosecuting transnational corporate groups).

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23 See, e.g., AU, Decision on the Meeting of African States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Doc. Assembly/AU/Dec.245(XIII) Rev.1 (3 July 2009).

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39 Ibid., at 78–9 and 84–6.

40 Ibid., at 89.

41 Ibid., at 96–7.

42 For a TWAIL re-reading of the history of international criminal law, see Nielsen, C., ‘From Nuremberg to The Hague: The Civilizing Mission of International Criminal Law’, (2008) 14 Auckland University Law Review 81 Google Scholar.

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45 Cryer, supra note 28, at 198; deGuzman, supra note 19, at 276–8.

46 deGuzman, supra note 19, at 278–81. See also Glasius, M., ‘Do International Criminal Courts Require Democratic Legitimacy’, (2012) 23 (1) EJIL 43, at 56Google Scholar.

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48 Ibid., at 195 (drawing on Lon Fuller's definition of rule of law).

49 Ibid.

50 Ibid., at 194–7.

51 deGuzman, supra note 19, at 273 (noting, however, that criticisms from ‘leaders with little personal legitimacy . . . are widely discounted’).

52 Ibid., at 268.

53 Ibid., at 276.

54 Ibid., at 268.

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58 Policy Paper on Preliminary Examinations, ICC-OTP (November 2013); Policy Paper on Case Selection and Prioritisation, ICC-OTP (15 September 2016).

59 deGuzman, supra note 19, at 281–9; W. Schabas, ‘The Short Arm of International Criminal Law’, in Schabas, McDermott and Hayes, supra note 24, at 387.

60 Mégret, supra note 43, at 94–6; deGuzman, supra note 19, at 312–19.

61 deGuzman, supra note 19, at 316–19.

62 Anghie and Chimni, supra note 38, at 89–90.

63 There is a notable geographical distribution of corporate headquarter states. By and large they are developed states, many being Western European, though this is beginning to change: Roach, B., ‘A Primer on Multinational Corporations’, in Chandler, A.D. Jr and Mazlish, B. (eds.), Leviathans: Multinational Corporations and the New Global History (2005), 19 at 24–8Google Scholar. Simultaneously, it is in states economically dependent upon foreign direct investment where local and global conditions press most powerfully towards lower levels of domestic regulation and enforcement: see, e.g., De Schutter, O., ‘The Accountability of Multinationals for Human Rights Violations in European Law’, in Alston, P. (ed.), Non-State Actors and Human Rights (2005), 227 at 238–9Google Scholar; Spar, D. and Yoffie, D., ‘Multinational Enterprises and the Prospects for Justice’, (1999) 52 (2) Journal of International Affairs 557 Google Scholar.

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68 Mutua, supra note 37, at 31

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73 See, e.g., Glasius, supra note 46.

74 See, e.g., Ryngaert, C., ‘Imposing International Duties on Non-State Actors and the Legitimacy of International Law’, in Noortmann, M. and Ryngaert, C. (eds.), Non-State Actor Dynamics in International Law: From Law-Takers to Law-Makers (2010), 69 Google Scholar.

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77 Art. 121 of the Rome Statute.

78 Art. 11 of the Malabo Protocol.

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81 Ibid., at 435.

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85 Ibid., at 448–50

86 Ibid., at 450–1. See also Akhavan, P., ‘Beyond Impunity: Can International Criminal Justice Prevent Future Atrocities?’, (2001) 95 AJIL 7 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

87 See, e.g., Eberechi, I., ‘“Rounding up the Usual Suspects”: Exclusion, Selectivity, and Impunity in the Enforcement of International Criminal Justice and the African Union's Emerging Resistance’, (2011) 4 African Journal of Legal Studies 51 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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89 Ibid., at 7–8.

90 Gevers, supra note 69, at 230–3. See also, Simpson, G., ‘Linear Law: The History of International Criminal Law’, in Schwöbel, C. (ed), Critical Approaches to International Criminal Law: An Introduction (2014), 159 Google Scholar.

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93 The principle of limited liability ‘limits the liability of shareholders, including corporate shareholders, to the unpaid amount of their investment’: Clough, supra note 91, at 9. For a discussion of the development of this principle, see Blumberg, supra note 92.

94 Targeting subsidiary companies may also be of limited value as subsidiaries may be under-capitalized and second- or third-tier companies can be dissolved in order to avoid liability.

95 On the case for an enterprise approach to piercing the corporate veil see Blumberg, supra note 92, at 311–16; Muchlinski, P., ‘Limited Liability and Multinational Enterprises: A Case for Reform’, (2010) 34 Cambridge Journal of Economics 915, at 919–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mwaura, K., ‘Internalization of costs to corporate groups: part-whole relationships, human rights norms and the futility of the corporate veil’, (2012) 11 Journal of International Business and Law 85, at 102–5Google Scholar.

96 See, e.g., Priemel, K.C., ‘Tales of Totalitarianism: Conflicting Narratives in the Industrialist Cases at Nuremberg’, in Priemel, K.C. and Stiller, A. (eds.), Reassessing the Nuremberg Military Tribunals: Transitional Justice, Trial Narratives, and Historiography (2012), 161 Google Scholar (demonstrating how the defence and Tribunal constructed such a reductive narrative in the industrialist trials at Nuremberg). See also Baars, G., ‘Capitalism's Victor's Justice? The Hidden Stories behind the Prosecution of Industrialists Post-WWII’, in Heller, K. and Simpson, G. (eds.), The Hidden Histories of War Crimes Trials (2013), 163 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

97 Policy Paper on Case Selection and Prioritisation, ICC-OTP (15 September 2016), para. 45

98 Ibid., paras. 45–6.

99 See, e.g., van der Wilt, H., ‘Universal Jurisdiction under Attack: An Assessment of African Misgivings towards International Criminal Justice as Administered by Western States’, (2011) 9 Journal of International Criminal Justice 1043 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.