Multinationals and Corporate Social Responsibility, Limitations and Opportunities in International Law by Jennifer A. Zerk
| Author | Justine Nolan |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2008.00703_1.x |
| Date | 01 May 2008 |
| Published date | 01 May 2008 |
this has, in some senses, been replaced by ideas of joint criminal enterprise needs
further elucidation. Joint criminal enterprise is certainly of concern to some ^
witness the criticism of the use of the extended form of joint criminal enterprise
to genocide. Nevertheless, would itbe satisfactory to have no conspiracy-based or
joint criminalenterprise-based o¡ences in international criminal law atall? If not,
is it, then, the precise manner in which they are used that is problematic rather
than their very existence?
In addition to the substance ^ and there is much of substance ^ there is a struc-
tural issue that must be noted for it informs the e ntire book. Throughout, appro-
priate reference is made to judgments of the International Military Tribunal
(IMT) at Nuremberg and atTokyo, Control Council cases, the jurisprudence of
the ad hoc tribunals and, crucially, domestic case-law. Thus, we see frequent men-
tion of, forexample,Eichma nn, Barbie and Demjanjukand not just the judgments in
these cases but their background and the context in which they are set.Without
these references, much of the argument would be lost.This raises a point of some
importance. So much of the writingon i nternationalcriminal law, by judges and
commentators alike, makes reference to the judgments of the IMTat Nuremberg,
the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the Interna-
tional Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. References to the judgment of the IMT
at Tokyo are less present; references to domestic prosecutions of war crimes are
even fewer and further between. Admittedly, it is a much more di⁄cult task to
locate this other, particularly domestic, jurisprudence. However, as Simpson
demonstrates, to ignore it is to have at best half the picture and a rather one-sided
half at that. Domestic war crimes trials and courts-martial are, then, aptly
described as‘the hidden historyof i nternational criminal law’ (40).
Finally, there is the not insigni¢cantquestion of style. Simpson has avery read-
able way of writing. He has the ability to explain complex ideas with a certain
ease and so makes the book readable for those with an interest in, but not neces-
sarily knowledge of, mattersof law, war orcrime.The book is also pepperedwith
referenc es to literature ( from Shakespe are’s HenryVto Philip Roth’s Operation Shy-
lock), operetta (Gilbert andSull ivan’sThe Pirates of Penzance) and ¢lm (Jarhea d).This
is quite a skill and Simpson employs it to considerable e¡ect.
In short, from argumentto structure to style, Law,War and Crime is to be recom-
mended.
Sandesh Sivakumaran
n
Jennif er A. Z erk, Multinationals and Corporate Social Responsibility,
Limitations and Opportunities in International Law
,Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2006,368 pp, hb d50.
The growth and interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has in part
stemmed from recurring examples of corporate irresponsibility. Recent decades
n
Universityof Nottingham.
Reviews
492 r2008 The Authors. Journal Compilation r2008 The Modern LawReview Limited.
(2008) 71(3) 490^504
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