Corporate defense strategies when accused of complicity in war crimes – the Lundin case

• In Event: Euroc - State and State-Corporate Crime

Abstract

In September 2023, a trial started in the Stockholm District Court against Orrön Energy (previously Lundin Energy, Lundin Petroleum and Lundin Oil) and two corporate directors for complicity in war crimes, following an investigation lasting more than ten years. According to the indictment, the defendants had exerted a decisive influence over Lundin Oil’s operations in Sudan between 1999 and 2003, when the military and various militias in the country had committed war crimes against the civilian population, partly in order to enable Lundin Oil's oil exploration in the area. Under Swedish law, there is no corporate criminal liability, but the indictment requests the court to impose a corporate fine of 3 million SEK (approx. 260 000 Euro) and require the company to forfeit economic benefits of almost 2.4 billion SEK (approx. 210 million Euro). Internationally, it is one of the few criminal court cases to deal with the impact of a company’s activities in a war zone and the accountability of its representatives. This paper focuses on the corporate defense strategies employed during the trial and asks: What strategies have the defense teams in the Lundin trial employed to counter accusations of complicity in war crimes? Further, the paper will explore how these strategies are influenced by the specific accusations of complicity in international crimes and how they might apply to contexts in which corporations face other types of allegations.

Author

• Isabel Schoultz, Lund University