Latin America

Judi Lynn

(160,545 posts) Fri Aug 21, 2015, 03:12 AM Aug 2015

Spanish Judge Wants to Change Law to Prosecute Corporations

Last edited Fri Aug 21, 2015, 10:05 AM - Edit history (1)

Spanish Judge Wants to Change Law to Prosecute Corporations
Published 21 August 2015 (4 hours 5 minutes ago)

International law should expand to include crimes committed by corporations, what have lasting impacts on local populations, say legal experts.

International corporations should be held responsible, by law, for economic and environmental crimes – that's the message that lawyers, academics and activists are bringing to an upcoming judicial congress in Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires next month.

The request is being spearheaded by Spanish lawyer Baltasar Garzon, who gained notoriety in 1998 when he ordered the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for human rights violations when he was visiting London.

Garzon now wants to widen the definition of international law to target corporations that carry out economic or environmental crimes.

According to the lawyer, the two crimes should be considered crimes against humanity, and have comparable punishments to torture or genocide.

More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Spanish-Judge-Wants-to-Change-Law-to-Prosecute-Corporations-20150821-0006.html

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Spanish Judge Wants to Change Law to Prosecute Corporations (Original Post) Judi Lynn Aug 2015 OP

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Spain's campaigning judge seeks change in law to prosecute global corporations Judi Lynn Aug 2015 #2

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Judi Lynn This message was self-deleted by its author.

Judi Lynn

(160,545 posts)

2. Spain's campaigning judge seeks change in law to prosecute global corporations

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Fri Aug 21, 2015, 10:09 AM

Aug 2015

Spain's campaigning judge seeks change in law to prosecute global corporations

Baltasar Garzón to push for economic and environmental crimes to be treated as those against humanity at international conference next month

Ashifa Kassam in Madrid
Thursday 20 August 2015 11.05 EDT

He has brought down governments, closed newspapers and ordered the arrests of dictators.

Now Baltasar Garzón, the Spanish judge who redefined the boundaries of cross-border justice, has set his sights on widening the definition of international law to target corporations that carry out economic or environmental crimes.

“Humanitarian and economic crises cause more deaths around the world than all of the genocides we have documented,” said Garzón, who made headlines around the world when he ordered the 1998 arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London.

Next month, he and other leading activists, judges and academics from a dozen countries will come together at a conference in Buenos Aires to push forward the idea that economic and environmental crimes be considered crimes against humanity, akin to torture or genocide.

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/20/spain-judge-baltasar-garzon-prosecute-global-corporations

Environment and energy:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/112790156

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