LEADER 03388cam a2200385Ia 4500001 260096 005 20240621200710.0 008 171020s2017 miu r 001 0 eng d 020 0472053612 020 9780472053612 020 0472073613 020 9780472073610 035 (OCoLC)ocn985688155 035 260096 049 LHMA 040 YDX |beng |erda |cYDX |dBOP |dERASA |dKHC |dLHM 050 4 KF6075 |b.B555 2017 100 1 Bilsky, Leora, |d1967- |eauthor. 245 14 The Holocaust, corporations, and the law : |bunfinished business / |cLeora Bilsky. 264 1 Ann Arbor [Michigan] : |bUniversity of Michigan Press, |c[2017] 300 xii, 239 pages ; |c23 cm. 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 490 1 Law, meaning, and violence 504 Includes bibliographical references (pg.173-235) and index. 505 0 Introduction -- 1. Corporate accountability and collective guilt -- 2. Transnational Holocaust litigation : between international criminal law and structural reform -- 3. Rethinking settlement -- 4. Transnational litigation and the legitimacy of domestic courts -- 5. A process-oriented approach to corporate liability for human rights violations -- 6. Humanitarian payment and corporate responsibility -- 7. The judge and the historian -- 8. Commissioned corporate history -- Conclusion : transnational Holocaust litigation as a source of theorization and strategy. 520 The Holocaust, Corporations, and the Law explores the challenge posed by the Holocaust to legal and political thought by examining the issues raised by the restitution class action suits brought against Swiss banks and German corporations before American federal courts in the 1990s. Although the suits were settled for unprecedented amounts of money, the defendants did not formally assume any legal responsibility. Thus, the lawsuits were bitterly criticized by lawyers for betraying justice and by historians for distorting history. Leora Bilsky argues class action litigation and settlement offer a mode of accountability well suited to addressing the bureaucratic nature of business involvement in atrocities. Prior to these lawsuits, legal treatment of the Holocaust was dominated by criminal law and its individualistic assumptions, consistently failing to relate to the structural aspects of Nazi crimes. Engaging critically with contemporary debates about corporate responsibility for human rights violations and assumptions about "law," she argues for the need to design processes that make multinational corporations accountable, and examines the implications for transitional justice, the relationship between law and history, and for community and representation in a post-national world. In an era when corporations are ever more powerful and international, Bilsky's arguments will attract attention beyond those interested in the Holocaust and its long shadow. 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 650 0 World War, 1939-1945 |xClaims. 650 0 Class actions (Civil procedure) |zUnited States. 650 0 Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) |xReparations. 650 0 Holocaust survivors |xLegal status, laws, etc. |zUnited States. 830 0 Law, meaning, and violence. 852 0 |bstacks |hKF6075 |i.B555 2017