Corporate Liability and International Criminal Law, by Alessandra De Tommaso (London

The book Corporate Liability and International Criminal Law by Alessandra De Tommaso is a must-read for everyone who wants to explore if corporate criminal liability should be incorporated within the scope of international criminal law and, if so, what are some of the main historical developments and issues to take into account.For many decades now, globalisation, state-corporate cooperation and a lack of effective regulation have led to corporate involvement in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in various conflicts and contexts, with only very few corporations being held accountable. 1De Tommaso's book provides a clear and thoughtful analysis of one part of the puzzle of corporate impunity but also provides a broad and comprehensible reassessment of the role that international criminal law can play in addressing corporate involvement in international crimes.Ranging from Nuremberg to the future of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the analysis also covers relevant developments in between, such as the drafting of the Code of Offences against Peace and Security of Mankind, the 1951 and 1953 Committees on International Criminal Jurisdiction and 'post-Rome' international and domestic developments around corporate criminal liability.As such, the book also offers insight into how the issue of international criminal liability of corporations has repeatedly shaped discussions on the scope of international (criminal) law.Chapter 1 discusses the legacy of Nuremberg.Nuremberg is part and parcel of virtually all texts discussing business and human rights (or atrocity crimes) and has been analysed by many scholars.De Tommaso's account of Nuremberg stands out because of its concise and nuanced argument that the idea of criminal liability of legal entities and its legal basis at Nuremberg differ greatly from the rationale underlying the modern concept of corporate criminal liability.This is a valuable contribution to the literature on the value of the Nuremberg precedent-also for non-lawyers-because it warns against an overestimation of its impact on present-day corporate liability under international law.Chapter 2 covers several initiatives in the aftermath of the Nuremberg trials that discussed the issue of international criminal liability of corporate entities.The author describes, for example, how the 1948 Genocide Convention represents 'a missed opportunity to launch a genuine debate'.The International Law Commission's Draft Code of Offences against Peace and Security of Mankind (starting in 1949) is discussed next.Then, an analysis of the role of the 1951 and 1953 Committees on International Criminal Jurisdiction exposes how, for the first time, the liability of business entities was discussed separately from the responsibility of states.The work of these two committees is presented

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