This timely book explores the prospect of prosecuting corporations or individuals within the business world for conduct amounting to international crime. The major debates and ensuing challenges are examined, arguing that corporate accountability under international criminal law is crucial in achieving the objectives of international criminal justice.

This book investigates whether corporate criminal liability should be incorporated within the scope of international criminal law. The work provides unique insight into the evolution of the debate on the international criminal liability of corporations to facilitate future discussion on the possibility of including corporations within the scope of international criminal law. It combines a detailed examination of Nuremberg and Rome with the examination of previously overlooked initiatives such as the Draft Code of Offences against Peace and Security of Mankind and the 1951 and 1953 Committees on International Criminal Jurisdiction. This analysis is also complemented by a review of significant post-1998 international and domestic developments around corporate criminal liability. In addition, it offers suggestions for the development of an amendment to hold corporations accountable under the Statute of the International Criminal Court. This book contributes to the existing literature on the topic of corporate liability which attracts significant attention from scholars in the fields of Law, Business, and Political Science. It will be useful to professionals in the academic and diplomatic fields, researchers, legal advisors, and business leaders. It will also be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the debate on holding businesses accountable under international criminal law.

Presenting cutting-edge research and scholarship, this extensive volume covers everything from abstract theorising about the meanings of responsibility and how we blame, to analysing criminal law and justice responses, and factors that impact individual responsibility. Inviting exchanges across a burgeoning critical scholarship on criminal responsibility, this Handbook showcases the diverse range of methodologies applied to the field, including socio-political approaches, critical historical methods, criminological and sociological perspectives, and interdisciplinary studies bridging law and the mind sciences. Spanning global networks of established and emerging scholars of responsibility for crime, this book explores how we relate to one another as human beings under the spotlight of the criminal law. In doing so, it is hoped that the collection not only does justice to the vibrant landscape of criminal responsibility studies, but inspires new directions and future synergies in this compelling field. The Routledge International Handbook of Criminal Responsibility will appeal to scholars and students of criminal law, criminal justice, criminology, sociology, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and socio-legal studies, as well as practitioners and policymakers working in related fields.

Corporate Accountability in the Context of Transitional Justice explores how corporations can be held accountable for their role in past human rights violations when a country is making a transition from conflict or repression to peace and democracy. It breaks new ground in theorizing the linkages between the areas of transitional justice and corporate accountability and analyzing problems frequently arising where the two fields meet in practice, for example where the role of corporations in past human rights violations is examined by truth and reconciliation commissions or in the course of litigation. The book provides an overview of the current trends in law and in legal and political discussion relating to both areas, as well as in-depth analysis of how tools of corporate accountability and transitional justice can complement each other in order to achieve the best outcomes for bringing justice to victims and lasting peace to societies. The authors bring extensive experience from diverse professional backgrounds and jurisdictions to provide the first sustained attempt to address this link. The book will be of interest to scholars, practitioners, policymakers and activists working in the areas of transitional justice; corporate accountability; and business and human rights.

This book explores the intersection of two emergent and vibrant fields of study in international human rights law: transitional justice and corporate accountability for human rights abuses. While both have received significant academic and political attention, the potential links between them remain largely unexplored. This book addresses the normative question of how international human rights law should deal with corporate accountability and violations of economic, social and cultural rights in transitional justice processes. Drawing on the Argentinian transitional justice process, the book outlines the theoretical and practical challenges of including corporate accountability in transitional justice processes through existing mechanisms. Offering specific insights about how to deal with those challenges, it argues that consideration of the role of all actors, and the whole spectrum of human rights violated, is crucial to properly address the root causes of violence and conflict as well as to contribute to a sustainable and positive peace. This interdisciplinary book will be of interest to students and scholars of transitional justice, human rights law, corporate law and international law.

Examines when, where, why, and how corporate accountability for past human rights violations in armed conflicts and authoritarian regimes is possible.

This book critically examines the issues pertaining to the Rome Statute’s complementarity principle. The focus lies on the primacy of African states to prosecute alleged perpetrators of international crimes in their respective jurisdictions. The chapters explore states’ international and domestic obligations to hold perpetrators of international crimes to account before the national courts, and demonstrate the complexity of enforcing national accountability of alleged perpetrators of international crimes while also ensuring that post-conflict African states achieve national healing, reconciliation, and sustainable peace. The contributions reject impunity for international crimes whilst also considering these complexities. Emphasis further lies on the meaning of accountability in the context of the politics of selective international criminal justice for crimes committed before the establishment of the International Criminal Court.

Presents theories, practices and critiques alongside each other to engage students, scholars and professionals from multiple fields. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

This book provides a comprehensive account of how non-state actors rely on international criminal law as a tool in the service of progressive political causes. The argument that international criminal law and its institutions serve as an instrument in the hands of a few powerful states, and that its practice is characterized by double standards and selectivity, has received considerable attention. This book, however, focuses on a practice that is informed by this argument. Its focus is on an alternative practice within international criminal law, where non-state actors navigate what critical scholars call a structurally biased legal system, in order to achieve long-term political objectives. Innovatively, the book combines the concerns expressed by Third World Approaches to International Law with strategic litigation that focuses on the accountability of corporations for their complicity in crimes under international law. Analysing this litigation, the book demonstrates that, while it is crucial to highlight the blind spots of the international criminal legal framework, it is also important to take into account the practice of non-state actors engaged in leveraging its emancipatory potential. This original analysis of the implementation and legitimacy of international criminal law will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and activists working in relevant areas of law, politics, criminology and international relations.

The system of international criminal justice was established in response to gross human rights violations committed during World War II. Despite its development over the past seven decades, challenges and critiques remain unresolved or have subsequently emerged, particularly in the context of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Key issues include amnesties, immunities, controversial acquittals, non-cooperation, interpretative fragmentation, and cultural clashes. Criticism emerged as a reaction to the perception of impunity and the system’s underachievement. It is important to reflect on the extent to which such challenges are inherent to the system and whether they can be overcome. What is the state of international criminal justice today? What impact have these challenges had on the system’s integrity, currency, and credibility? To what extent can we prevent or remedy them? This volume brings together major contributions to the 8th AIDP Symposium for Young Penalists which was organised by the AIDP Young Penalists Committee and convened on 10 and 11 June 2021 in telematic mode, hosted by the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University.