South Korea Shatters the Paradigm: Corporate Liability, Historical Accountability, and the Second World War
28 Pages Posted: 12 Apr 2021 Last revised: 23 May 2022
Date Written: April 10, 2021
Abstract
South Korea is currently revising its interpretation of the Second World War and its colonial relationship with Japan. In 2018, the Supreme Court of South Korea issued two opinions that staked new ground in this process of legal revision. First, by holding Japanese multinational enterprises legally liable, the opinions shatter a wall of corporate impunity for the war that courts in other jurisdictions have erected over the past three decades. Second, by situating the decisions within Korea's own colonial post, the judgments advance a post-colonial jurisprudence that many scholars have discussed, but few judgments have actually evinced. Third, the opinions suggest that issues of World War II liability, and colonialism more generally, will continue to be revised in the coming years.
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