Workshop on ‘Neutral Business Assistance and the Limits of Complicity in International Criminal Law’

with Nikola Hajdin

​​

The Stockholm Centre for International Law and Justice invites you to a workshop seminar with

Nikola Hajdin
on
Neutral Business Assistance and the Limits of Complicity in International Criminal Law

Description:
Across the globe, large multinational corporations regularly carry out commercial transactions with governments and non-state actors suspected of horrific human rights violations. As part of their ordinary business activities, they sell weapons, computers, civil and military vehicles, provide money, intelligence, training, air support, and so on, which are used in the commission of international crimes. These cases raise serious questions in international criminal law, in particular as to whether neutral business assistance may entail complicity. The concept of neutral assistance comes from German criminal law, and it is defined as a conduct inherently non-dangerous that nonetheless contributes to the crime.
 
In this project, I will first make a conceptual clarification between different types of contribution relevant for complicity, such as neutral, ordinary, specifically directed, and dual use assistance. I will then explore the meaning of contribution in the doctrine of complicity. In order to do so, I will take a theoretical detour and expound on the relevance of causation for aiding and abetting. In the last part, I will propose the minimum level of participation required for complicity in international criminal law and argue that any type of assistance is prohibited as long as it materially furthers the crime. Such an interpretation runs the risk of overcriminalization, especially if we accept the customary mens rea standard according to which knowing (as opposed to purposeful) assistance entails responsibility. To balance this, I will propose an argument of justification that exculpates assisters where the moral ground for the provision of means exceeds the significance of the caused harm.

Bio:
Dr Nikola R. Hajdin is a Fellow of the Faculty of Law and Christ Church, Oxford University. Nikola is also a Senior Fellow at the Stockholm Centre of International Law and Justice. He holds a PhD degree from Stockholm University, an LLM from Lund University, and an LLM and LLB degrees from the University of Belgrade. In his doctoral thesis, published by Stockholm University in 2021, Nikola developed a theory of criminal responsibility of civil society leaders (industrialists, editors-in-chief of influential media, public intellectuals, etc.) for contributing to a war of aggression. His work has been published in leading international law journals.


The workshop has a hybrid format, either live at the Faculty Room or on Zoom:
https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/69735990994
No registration needed.

Domestic prosecution of international crimes

with Professor Elies van Sliedregt

Stockholm Centre for International Law and Justice invites you to a lecture with

Elies van Sliedregt

on

Domestic prosecution of international crimes

 

Since the establishment of the ICC in 2002, domestic courts have been more active in prosecuting international crimes. The majority of international crime prosecutions are currently conducted in Europe and regards those who flee from war-stricken countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. TRIAL International reports that as victims from war-struck Syria and Iraq found refuge in Europe the number of universal jurisdiction (UJ) prosecutions have gone up significantly. The paradigm shift to domestic enforcement of ICL has multiplied disparity and fragmentation of ICL. This increases forum-shopping by those who look for the jurisdiction with the broadest UJ provisions. There is no system to regulate the exercise of UJ. Civil Society Organizations focus on Sweden and Germany in bringing cases, because of their broad UJ powers and the fact that they have specialized war crimes units within their law enforcement and prosecution services. Van Sliedregt questions the desirability of the disproportionate burdening of one jurisdiction acting as the policeman of the world. In this talk, she will address the complexities of domestic prosecution of international crimes and the question whether, and if so how, states can install a horizontal, inter-state system of complementarity and burden-sharing.

Elies van Sliedregt is Professor of Criminal Law & Procedure at the University of Tilburg. She has previously been the Professor of International and Comparative Criminal Law at the University of Leeds and the Dean of the Law Faculty, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. On a regular basis, she trains foreign/international judges and prosecutors in international criminal law.
She has authored “International Criminal Law and Legal Pluralism: Straddling Cosmopolitan Aims and Distributed Enforcement” (OUP, 2020), “Criminal responsibility in International Law” (OUP, 2012) and “Rogue Traders. Dutch Businessmen, International Crimes and Corporate Complicity” (JICJ, 2010).

Registration (voluntary): scilj@juridicum.su.se, latest the same day

You can follow the lecture online here.