Revisiting the Possibility of Corporate Criminal Responsibility in International Criminal Law: Amending Article 25 of the Rome Statute to Include Legal Entities Within the Jurisdiction of the ICC.

Abstract

The influence of corporations is omnipotent in our current society. They have great influence over economy, lawmaking, media, etc. Especially, since governments are increasingly outsourcing tasks to multinational corporations. Nonetheless, with great power comes great responsibility. This means corporations are also increasingly involved in Human Rights abuses, sometimes amounting to international crimes. Paradoxically, there is no international body adjudicating over corporate criminal responsibility at the moment; this constitutes an accountability gap. However, there has been an indication of more openness towards corporate criminal liability in international law, and more specifically the inclusion of corporate entities within the jurisdiction of the ICC. Therefore, the research question of this paper is “Is the current legal climate willing and ready to include legal entities within the jurisdiction of the ICC?” Corporation are involved in international crimes in several ways; direct, indirect or passively. Examples include purchasing illegally exploited resources and providing weapons to armed parties. Currently, there are only some soft-law instruments, non-binding to corporations, to tackle these problems. Besides that, article 25 of the Rome Statute only allows for the ICC to judge over individual corporate officers. Not holding all actors involved responsible can be remedied by including corporations within the jurisdiction of the ICC. The legal climate has not always been accepting towards the inclusion of corporate criminal liability, but has been changing over the last couple of years, by showing an increasing interest in corporate criminal liability. This means the possibility of an amendment of Article 25 of the Rome Statute has become more likely. If the ICC were to have jurisdiction over corporate entities, it would eliminate the problem of States’ reluctance against prosecuting corporations due to economic and political interests, taking into account the grave, trans-boundary and collective nature of international crimes. Nonetheless, an amendment would require extensive discussion and the overcoming of potential hurdles. However, this does not mean an amendment to the Rome Statute is impossible.