Corporate criminal liability in Africa: The discomfiture surrounding the protocol on the amendments to the protocol on the statute of the African court of justice and human rights

Abstract

The corporate criminal liability doctrine has not always been met with open arms in international law. The main concern being the difficulties in assessing the mens rea of a legal entity as opposed to a natural person. The derivative models of attribution of liability helped to relieve some of these concerns by first finding an individual liable and as a consequence, a corporation would be found liable too. However, the era of globalisation has made it so that corporations have developed into more complex structures that make it difficult to identify specific individuals in whom liability should be placed. Consequently, corporations have continued to benefit from their crimes without having to pay the price. It is for this reason that a new model, an organisational approach, has been developed. This model seeks to attribute liability directly to corporations. The proposed criminal division of the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples Rights (ACtJHPR) seeks to adopt this model in attributing corporate criminal liability. The objective of this research paper is to discuss the viability of application of this model in the African context. This research has mainly been qualitatively based as it has relied on primary and secondary sources. The primary sources have included legislations from different states and international legal instruments. The secondary sources have made the most contribution to this research