Traditionally, transitional justice processes do not
address the role of corporations in dictatorships
or in armed conflicts that give rise to the need for
dealing with grave and systematic human rights
violations. However, there is a growing awareness
that in many contexts corporations contribute to
these violations, often in the form of corporate
complicity with the principal violators. An argument
can therefore be made that to achieve the aims of
transitional justice and establish a holistic narrative
of the past as well as obtain justice and reparations
for victims requires investigating and addressing
the role of corporate actors. This article uses the
example of Colombia’s Justice and Peace process
to show some of the complexities, opportunities
and challenges that arise if transitional justice
measures focus primarily on criminal law and
create a specific legal framework, outside of the
ordinary justice systems, only for a limited group
of primary perpetrators, in the Colombian case for
members of the armed groups who demobilised. It
is argued that the exclusion of corporate actors in contexts where their role is regarded as significant
leads to victims seeking alternatives ways to obtain
justice and that both victims and corporations
would benefit if transitional justice mechanisms
addressed the role of corporations.
Keywords:
Corporate accountability, corporate criminal responsibility, transitional justice, Justice and Peace Process
Author Biographies
Sabine Michalowski, University of Essex, Reino Unido
Professor of Law, University of Essex, Director of the Essex Transitional Justice Network. First and Secon Legal State Exam (Germany), Diploma in Comparative Law (Paris II), PhD (Sheffield). Entre sus últimas publicaciones se cuentan: Sabine Michalowski (Ed.) Corporate Accountability in the Context of Transitional Justice, Routledge 2013; Sabine Michalowski, ‘Doing Business with a Bad Actor: How to Draw the Line Between Legitimate Commercial Activities and Those that Trigger Corporate Complicity Liability’, 50(3) Texas Journal of International Law 403-464 (2015); Sabine Michalowski, ‘The mens rea standard for corporate aiding and abetting liability – conclusions from international criminal law’, 18(2) UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs 237-274 (2014), Sabine Michalowski, ‘No Complicity Liability for Funding Gross Human Rights Violations?’ 30 Berkeley Journal of International Law 451-524 (2012).
Juan Pablo Cardona Chaves, University of Essex, Reino Unido
Abogado, Magíster en Derecho de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, ex-Fiscal de la Dirección de Fiscalías de Justicia Transicional en Colombia y estudiante del LLM en Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, Universidad de Essex, Reino Unido.