Prosecuting Corporate Executives for War Crimes in Sudan

Around the world, corporate behavior can have harmful impacts, transcending territorial boundaries and traditional commercial settings. Apparent corporate involvement in atrocities and human rights violations raisesquestions about liability. During the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005), corporations from North America and Europe sought to exploit gasand oil resources in the conflict areas of southern Sudan. There have beenvarious attempts to hold those corporations and their executives liable foralleged involvement in atrocities committed during that conflict. Amongthem is the recent indictment lodged in the district court of Stockholmagainst leading executives of Lundin Energy, a Swedish oil and gas company, for complicity in alleged war crimes in southern Sudan from 1999 to2003. The case has prompted further litigation and scholarly discussion ona variety of related issues in Sweden and elsewhere, including the capacity toprosecute persons residing in other countries under universal jurisdiction,the role of government in authorizing prosecutions, complicity in international crimes, applicability of international humanitarian law, and theSwedish penal provision on war crimes. In exploring the Lundin case andrelevant precedent regarding domestic criminalization of violations of international humanitarian law in a non-international armed conflict, this article argues that the district court does have jurisdiction in the Lundin caseand that questions relating to complicity should be adjudicated pursuant togeneral principles of domestic criminal law.