Complicity of corporations in grave breaches of human rights constituting core crimes

Abstract

Corporations play an essential part in violations of human rights which amount to core crimes. Looking back to the Second World War, one will observe that no one person alone could commit the atrocities produced. There will be no mass killings with the use of gas, or bombs, or armaments if corporations do not supply military groups or rebel forces with such produce. However, corporations involved in breaches of human rights are not limited to the supply of such products. A number of corporations make profit from the extraction industry which is renowned for grave violations of human rights. Although corporations may play an important role in such abuses, they are generally not the primary perpetrators of the crimes, but rather act as secondary perpetrators without even having a direct connection with the crime. This thesis will analyse the possibility of holding corporations accountable for their participation in grave breaches of human rights. The main issue upon which the study revolves is that the ICC Rome Statute does not have jurisdiction over legal persons. In order to find a possible solution, the elements of corporate criminal liability and complicity are analysed to establish whether they may be attributed to a legal person. Moreover, a comparative analysis is undertaken in order to establish what provisions already exist in certain jurisdictions, namely the United States, Canada, and some Western European Countries. A number of judicial fora are also analysed to expand the possibility of corporate criminal liability at an international law level through national courts, or international tribunals or courts. The ICC is chosen as the preferred forum, without excluding the possibility of having specific international tribunals, because of the principle of complementarity which affords primacy to domestic courts.