This chapter examines the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) engaged in strategic litigation with the aim of closing the corporate criminal enforcement gap for complicity in atrocity crimes. Focusing on the political and legal strategies of CSOs in the Netherlands seeking to influence prosecutorial decision-making through the complaint mechanism that allows CSOs to request a judicial order to prosecute, I examine a case from the Netherlands and two cases of transnational litigation unfolding in other North-Western European countries to assess the practices of and opportunities for CSOs in the field of corporate accountability through criminal law. Drawing on the typologies of the relationship between CSOs and prosecutorial authorities developed by Jeßberger and Steinl, I argue that CSOs fulfil several roles at different stages in the strategic litigation process, each contributing to the institutionalisation of societal questioning of prosecutorial policy in their own way. Through the application of relational typologies to the case studies and Dutch legal dynamics, I argue that strategies solely focused on the litigation process have limited impact in the Dutch criminal justice system due to the doctrinal complexity of determining corporate involvement in atrocity crimes and the courts’ position to review prosecutorial prioritisation policies.

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Strategic Litigation for Corporate Accountability Through (International) Criminal Law: Dutch Legal Dynamics and Litigating Civil Society Organisations

  • Thomas R. Becker

摘要

This chapter examines the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) engaged in strategic litigation with the aim of closing the corporate criminal enforcement gap for complicity in atrocity crimes. Focusing on the political and legal strategies of CSOs in the Netherlands seeking to influence prosecutorial decision-making through the complaint mechanism that allows CSOs to request a judicial order to prosecute, I examine a case from the Netherlands and two cases of transnational litigation unfolding in other North-Western European countries to assess the practices of and opportunities for CSOs in the field of corporate accountability through criminal law. Drawing on the typologies of the relationship between CSOs and prosecutorial authorities developed by Jeßberger and Steinl, I argue that CSOs fulfil several roles at different stages in the strategic litigation process, each contributing to the institutionalisation of societal questioning of prosecutorial policy in their own way. Through the application of relational typologies to the case studies and Dutch legal dynamics, I argue that strategies solely focused on the litigation process have limited impact in the Dutch criminal justice system due to the doctrinal complexity of determining corporate involvement in atrocity crimes and the courts’ position to review prosecutorial prioritisation policies.