Publication

Ordinary business and international criminal responsibility: contributions to international crimes by means of neutral conduct

Bitorsoli, Marta
Citation
Abstract
International crimes are inherently collective offences. They result from collusion and cooperation between political, military (or paramilitary), and often economic actors. Thus, it can be said that there are three dimensions to international criminality:1 a political, a military and an economic dimension. Aside from few exceptions, so far scarce attention has been paid to the economic dimension of international crimes, hence to the enablers, the profiteers, the financiers of international crimes. In the aftermath of World War II (WWII), a few German industrialists that contributed to the establishment and functioning of the Nazi regime were brought to trial. 2 The, so called, Industrialists’ trial, held before the U.S. Military Court in Nuremberg, showed a ‘symbiotic relationship’ between business and the regime.3 However, the economic dimension of international crimes has remained largely underexplored. 4 In fact, the international criminal justice system has proved to be capable, and willing, of deflecting its course to avoid collision with powerful business. This ‘economic protectionism’, 5 coupled with procedural and evidentiary difficulties, 6 has, on the one hand, practically sheltered economic contributors from criminal prosecution and, on the other, fostered the narrative depicting complicit ordinary business as ‘condemnable from a moral, but not from a legal, point of view.’7 This thesis, conversely, suggests that the economic dimension of international criminality is not merely a negligible side-effect of mass atrocities. Wenar wrote, ‘with each headline that we see today, we can ask this question: how much would this be happening had resources money not flowed to unaccountable foreigners with every incentive to be divisive?’8 This research arises from the consideration that those ‘unaccountable foreigners’ are often ordinary businesspeople. It reflects on the fact that conflict provides an opportunity for profit. It posits that the extent of the most heinous atrocities of our times would not have been the same without the tacit approval, unquestioning profiting and, at times, direct assistance of ordinary business. 9 It concludes that ordinary business might enable, facilitate, and even be a catalyst for, the commission of international crimes. Only recently has the economic dimension of international crimes become the subject of specific research. 10 Studies on the economic dimension of the Holocaust,
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Publisher
NUI Galway
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Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland
CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IE