About this blog

This blog looks at some of the legal and practical questions surrounding allegations of corporate complicity in human rights violations. Despite its title, it is not restricted to war crimes. Just as we might sometimes refer to “war crimes tribunals” to describe courts with wider jurisdiction, this blog’s title is just a sort of convenient shorthand.

There will be posts about both criminal and civil liability, with a focus on English and international law and cases. It is not intended to defend or criticise corporations in general, or advocate for or against liability in any particular case. Instead, the aim is to highlight and explore some of the issues that arise when a company risks being complicit in alleged human rights violations. If you have any comments or ideas for the blog, please do get in touch.

About me

My name is Russell Hopkins. I am an English-qualified lawyer currently living in Phnom Penh where I work as a legal adviser to the Cambodian judges in the Trial Chamber of the Khmer Rouge tribunal. Before I moved to Cambodia, I spent eight years working in the London office of Herbert Smith Freehills LLP. I have also worked on several defence teams, at trial and on appeal, at the international criminal tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. I was a judicial assistant at the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom where I assisted Lord Collins and Lord Wilson. I studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford, then law at City University in London. I have an LLM from Strathclyde University in Glasgow – the city that I still think of as home.