Mission Logs
Directly complicit companies must stop the violations, make amends and end all relations with the violators, and beneficiaries should compensate victims. International guidelines don't normally demand leaving the country. The tax argument extends complicity to every company, sinc...
Q Why is a general call for all companies to leave an aggressor state problematic?
Because it amounts to a comprehensive economic embargo, and comprehensive embargoes cause huge humanitarian harm to the civilian population, hitting the weakest and most vulnerable groups hardest.
If every company leaves, the effect is the same as a total economic embargo. Such e...
Q What is the difference between comprehensive and targeted sanctions, and why did sanctions design sh...
Comprehensive sanctions hit a country's economy as a whole; targeted sanctions burden only the state representatives responsible for the war or the human-rights violations. The shift came because comprehensive sanctions harm civilians, which violates the principle of discriminati...
Q What question does Brühl's paper Should They Go, or May They Stay ask, and which theories does it us...
Whether multinational companies are morally obliged to leave an aggressor state such as Russia simply because they operate there; it answers with the theory of complicity and the theory of sanctions, both framed by just war theory.
After Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine...
Q Which five principles of just war theory does Brühl use to judge the morality of sanctions?
Just cause, legitimate authority, discrimination, proportionality and a reasonable prospect of success; procedural legitimacy is added as part of political legitimacy.
* The five just-war principles a legitimate sanctions regime must satisfy. *
Principle
Applied to sanctions...
Q How does just war theory classify Russia's war against Ukraine, and what does that imply for compani...
As an unjust war: an unprovoked aggression against a sovereign state, accompanied by human-rights violations against civilians. This supports the claim that companies there operate in a state committing grave, state-organised wrongs and have a moral obligation to stop and leave....
Q Why are companies not legitimate sanctioning authorities, even when people speak of "corporate sanct...
Because only governments have the legitimate power to issue binding rules for a collective of actors and to impose coercive measures that restrict property rights; a company leaving a country is a private decision, not a sanction.
Just war theory's principle of legitimate authori...
Q What is complicity in business ethics, and what are its three categories?
Complicity is knowingly taking part in others' wrongdoing; its categories are direct complicity (actively contributing), beneficial complicity (profiting from the violations) and silent complicity (failing to speak up and use one's influence).
* The three categories of complicit...
Q Which three categories of goods and services does Brühl distinguish in a targeted sanctions regime,...
(a) Prohibited, sanctioned goods: companies must comply, since evading sanctions is illegal and morally wrong. (b) Explicitly permitted essential goods: supplying them is legitimate and can even be a moral duty. (c) Implicitly permitted non-essential goods: allowed, but in tensio...
Q How do direct and beneficial complicity apply to companies operating in Russia?
Direct complicity covers companies that take part in the war or supply goods, services or financing that can be used for it, such as weapons, arms production or military logistics. Beneficial complicity covers companies that profit from the violations, such as by buying and resel...