Browsing by Author "Masake, Pilisano Harris"
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ItemA critical consideration of the exclusion of corporate criminal liability for the atrocity crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-12) Masake, Pilisano Harris; Kemp, Gerhard; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Law. Dept. of Public Law.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: From the international criminal law perspective, unlike the national law perspective, the principle of corporate criminal responsibility is not defined neither does the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) of 1998 provide for it. Therefore, currently, the ICC has no jurisdiction over legal persons. It is the argument of this dissertation that legal persons can commit atrocities. The exclusion of corporate criminal responsibility from the jurisdiction of the ICC undermines the preventative measures that are aimed at putting an end to impunity for atrocity crimes under international criminal law. Further that the exclusion of corporate criminal liability has potential to create unnecessary dissonance between the jurisprudence of the ICC and that of domestic courts. The premise for advancing the corporate criminal responsibility, among others, includes: first, that prosecuting and punishing corporations for international crimes (attributing criminal liability to corporations) would enhance the deterrence theory anticipated by the Rome Statute, thereby supplementing the principle of individual criminal responsibility. Second, it is trite law that corporations are at law construed as juristic persons vested with rights and obligations. Therefore, these legal realities, outweighs the corporations’ perceived lack of capacity to commit international crimes. Finally, evidenced by a series of human rights violations by corporations, there is a watertight case to argue that corporations are capable of being more complicit in the commission of core crimes than is currently assumed.