Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-499_1a7d.pdf
Page Number: 21

Cite as:  584 U. S. ____ (2018) 

15 

Opinion of the Court 
Opinion of KENNEDY, J. 

The  jurisdictional  reach  of  more  recent  international 
tribunals  also  has  been  limited  to “natural  persons.”    See 
Statute  of  the  International  Criminal  Tribunal  for  the 
Former  Yugoslavia,  S. C.  Res.  827  (May  25,  1993),  adopt-
ing U. N. Secretary-General Rep. Pursuant to Paragraph 2 
of  Security  Council  Resolution  808,  Art.  6,  U. N.  Doc.
S/25704 (May 3, 1993); Statute of the International Tribu-
nal  for  Rwanda,  Art.  5,  S. C.  Res.  955,  Art.  5  (Nov.  8,
1994).  The  Rome  Statute  of  the  International  Criminal 
Court,  for  example,  limits  that  tribunal’s  jurisdiction  to
“natural persons.”  See Rome Statute of the International 
Criminal Court, Art. 25(1), July 17, 1998, 2187 U. N. T. S.
90.  The  drafters  of  the  Rome  Statute  considered,  but 
rejected,  a  proposal  to  give  the  International  Criminal 
Court  jurisdiction  over  corporations.    Eser,  Individual 
Criminal Responsibility, in 1 Rome Statute of the Interna-
tional Criminal Court 767, 778–779 (A. Cassese et al. eds. 
2002).

The  international  community’s  conscious  decision  to 
limit  the  authority  of  these  international  tribunals  to 
natural  persons  counsels  against  a  broad  holding  that 
there is a specific, universal, and obligatory norm of corpo-
rate liability under currently prevailing international law. 

2 
In  light  of  the  sources  just  discussed,  the  sources  peti-
tioners rely on to support their contention that liability for 
corporations  is  well  established  as  a  matter  of  interna-
tional law lend weak support to their position. 

Petitioners  first  point  to  the  International  Convention
for  the  Suppression  of  the  Financing  of  Terrorism.    This 
Convention  imposes  an  obligation  on  “Each  State  Party”
“to  enable  a  legal  entity  located  in  its  territory  or  orga-
nized  under  its  laws  to  be  held  liable  when  a  person  re-
sponsible  for  the  management  or  control  of  that  legal 
entity  has,  in  that  capacity,”  violated  the  Convention.