For the current and next generation of stockholders: “Securing profit isn’t some abstraction achieved in pristine boardrooms in capital cities ... It is a process that plays out in real locations, with real people, including those living through conflict.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/o...
"Securing profit isn’t some abstraction achieved in pristine boardrooms in capital cities. It is a process that plays out in real locations, with real people, including those living through conflict.” @bechamilton.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/o...
Judge to a former executive of Lafarge: “I am trying to make you understand how choices made in your offices, thousands of kilometers away, turned into Kalashnikov bullets, into blood” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/o...
...but mostly staying in contact with survivors keeps that in check. Plus, I'm constantly in awe that, given where I started, this is what I actually get to do with my life, in community with a ton of wonderful ppl.)
(fwiw - I'm adopting "cheerful war crimes lawyer" as my tagline. As always, @mashagessen.bsky.social sees clearly. Students often ask - Why don't I fall into a hole of depression with what I work on? Sometimes I do....
I'll be telling that story, & the broader arc of survivor-driven accountability efforts, in the book project I'm working on - White Collar War Criminals: bechamilton.com/book-projects/
The column references my 2022 law review article, Platform-Enabled Crimes, about Meta's role in the Rohingya genocide: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
A thread with gratitude to @mashagessen.bsky.social @nytimes.com for covering the corporate complicity verdict against LaFarge this week & for the chance to discuss how corporate enabling (incl., now, by BigTech) is key to preventing mass atrocities. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/o...
Always read @alrwishdi.bsky.social for thoughtful and nuanced analysis - & stay tuned for his forthcoming law review article on Rethinking Government Recognition.
For litigators, here's hoping the result in La Farge provides inspiration to persist, including in relation to Platform-Enabled Crimes: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
For those coming at this from an academic lens, this is an oldie but a goodie on the imperative of drawing together direct perps & enablers in the same frame (including how France's partie civil system, used in the La Farge case, provides an ideal forum): papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
6/ It matters that both c-suite officers & the corporation have been found guilty. On the latter, we (int'l criminal lawyers) over-learned the Nuremberg lesson on accountability for individuals. It is near-impossible to commit atrocities at scale without entities also playing a role.
...this is still the 1st time French courts have found a corporation guilty of terrorist financing. Typically these cases are against individuals who are caught up in terrorist ideology.
4/ In 2023, French investigatory judges seperated out the financing & CAH cases. Today's verdict relates to the financing case (CAH investigation is ongoing).
5/ Obviously it helped that the corporation had agreed to the US plea BUT...
2/ @ecchr.bsky.social & Sherpa brought the case in France in 2017 on charges including terrorist financing & complicity in crimes against humanity.
3/ In 2022 La Farge entered a plea agreement with US authorities over material support to an FTO: www.justice.gov/archives/opa...
Brief explainer thread for those just tuning in on this case:
1/ The facts relate to payments of >$6M made by French cement company La Farge to terrorist groups, including IS, in 2013 - 2014, which includes the period when IS committed genocide against the Yazidi.
Huge news coming out of Paris this morning! Immense congratulations to @ecchr.bsky.social & Sherpa for tireless advocacy & for the courage & persistence of victims: www.lemonde.fr/en/syria/art...
Excited for this discussion of Your Data Will Be Used Against You by @profferguson.bsky.social with @brennancenter.org ‘s @rlevinsonwaldman.bsky.social
Congratulations to the people of Hungary!!
Avoiding these kinds of horrors are exactly why the rules of engagement are not, & never have been, what Hegseth calls “stupid” www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Literally in the announcement of the deal:
Good moment to read essay by Alberto Mora (Navy's General Counsel under W. Bush)
On why a law passed in 2023, with strong bipartisan backing, prevents NATO withdrawal.
Trump would need two-thirds of Senators or a new law.
Mora: www.justsecurity.org/128930/prese...
Today's @justsecurity.org must-read: @marknevitt.bsky.social on the S/Hormuz as "a test of whether [conventional military] dominance can translate into control over a contested maritime chokepoint in the face of asymmetric, persistent denial. So far, it has not." www.justsecurity.org/135899/strai...
Here in the U.S. right now we painfully dependent on the willingness of other nations to uphold their international legal obligation not to assist in the commission of an internationally wrongful act. Feeling grateful to UK & Portugal: www.ft.com/content/e7b1...
For those asking on illegality: The threat itself is a violation of IHL, incorporated into the U.S. DoD's Law of War Manual under 10.5.3.2: "Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited." And, if carried out the way he makes it sound --> genocide
10.5.3.2. DoD Law of War Manual: "Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."
www.reuters.com/world/middle...
Reporting incoming of U.S. strikes on Kharg Island.
President Trump on Truth Social threatening to destroy "a whole civilization"
This is vile. No one needs a lawyer to tell them this is illegal. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment no matter your politics. The U.S. Congress, the American public, U.S. military, U.S. allies or former allies. We need each & every one of you to call him back from the brink.
