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31 Berkeley J. Int'l L. 348 (2013)
Never Again: German Chemical Corporation Complicity in the Kurdish Genocide

handle is hein.journals/berkjintlw31 and id is 354 raw text is: Never Again? German Chemical Corporation Complicity in the Kurdish Genocide Michael J. Kelly* I apologize for the German participation in the Kurdish genocide. The trade of German companies with Saddam's regime was an illegal act. They should not have done that. Germany has to tell the people of Kurdistan that it was a mistake. Gassing Halabja took place with the help of German companies.' -Claudia Roth, co-Chair, German Green Party, July 4, 2012 INTRODUCTION In several domestic jurisdictions, corporations may be prosecuted for criminal wrongdoing within their home states.2 This is certainly true in the United States.3 However, when multinational corporations commit crimes abroad, they often escape prosecution for a variety of reasons-lack of jurisdiction, lack of political will, or lack of well-articulated criminality under international law. The complicity of German chemical corporations in Saddam Hussein's genocide against Iraq's Kurdish population falls into all of these categories. The chemical weapons attacks unleashed on the Kurdish people of Iraq in 1987-1988 were the largest such attacks ever directed against a civilian * Professor of Law and Associate Dean, Creighton University School of Law. B.A., J.D., Indiana University; LL.M., Georgetown University. The author is President of the U.S. National Section of L 'Association Internationale de Droit PInal and leads Creighton's program on International Criminal Law in Nuremberg, Germany in conjunction with Philipps-Universitat Marburg, Friedrich- Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nlrnberg, and the Nuremberg Principles Academy. Many thanks to research assistant Rachel Breger. 1. Sirwan Heji Berko, Claudia Roth: Germany Must Admit Mistakes and Apologize to Kurds, RUDAw, July 4, 2012, available at http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurds/4639.html. 2. See, e.g., Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) pt 2.5 div 12 (Austl.). A body corporate may be found guilty of any offence, including one punishable by imprisonment. Id. div 12.1. 3. E.g., N.Y. Cent. & Hudson River R.R. v. United States, 212 U.S. 481 (1909). 348

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