By Chris Tucker '08
Associate News Editor

The Nineteenth Annual Sokol Colloquium in Private International Law, held on Friday, November 18, was convened to discuss the prosecution of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials following World War II. The Nuremberg trials are famous for their prosecutions of high-ranking Nazi leaders for various war crimes, but are less known for their more controversial attempts at prosecuting the directors and leaders of German industrial corporations and Nazi organizations. It is this lesser-known aspect of the trials that were the focus of the colloquium, which was co-sponsored by the J. B. Moore Society of International Law and the Virginia Journal of International Law.

The colloquium featured two professors, Allison Danner of Vanderbilt Law School and John Barrett of St. John’s School of Law, who discussed their writings on the issue. Danner focused on the possible precedents set by the Nuremberg trials for prosecuting corporations for war crimes. Barrett discussed the various Nazi organizations prosecuted for their participation. The colloquium served as a round-table setting for the featured professors to discuss drafts of their papers with other scholars interested in the field of international law. The various participants posed questions and offered suggestions for possible amendments and improvements to the papers, with the environment of the colloquium fostering an atmosphere of honest discussion.

A common theme throughout the discussion was the problem associated with drawing appropriate lines when deciding who should be prosecuted for war crimes, and the difficulty in differentiating between corporations who actively participated in various war crimes and those who were simply complicit in an environment that required it. A difficulty also arose in the definition of “crimes of aggression.” One panelist illustrated the point that war’s very nature is aggressive and therefore a crime of aggression would be difficult to prosecute.

While no corporate leaders were successfully prosecuted after the war, the precedent had been set and the debate had begun as to whether or not corporations should be held liable for the actions of their directors and leaders. One of the participants pointed out that the United States is somewhat of an outlier in that we do allow corporations to be held liable for the actions of their directors. Most countries do not allow this type of litigation, even though many are becoming more open to the possibility.

Whether or not any corporation or organization will ever be held liable for war crimes in the future will be decided by the international community when the opportunity again arises. Whatever the decision, there will be hard lines taken by both sides – those that feel that corporations are simply supporting their country and those that feel that the corporations are an integral and active part of the war effort and therefore should be prosecuted as such.