In France, last week a multinational corporation and its executives have been found guilty and sentenced for supporting terrorist organizations. Even in the Nuremberg trials of WWII it became nearly impossible for the courts to hold corporations responsible for supporting the Nazi regime with their products. They could defend themselves from the atrocities their products were used for by saying they didn’t intend for that to happen.  They were merely businessmen and women turning a profit.

In France it appears the defendant corporation’s customers were designated as criminals and their criminal intent was obvious. The corporation had been treated by the criminals with distinct favor offering their employees protections while doing business; a protection other parties in the middle east did not enjoy. The verdict was built around a documented intent to serve a criminal enterprise. The defendants couldn’t distance themselves from the customers intent to use their product to commit a crime. Intent is a neutral force in that it defines itself legally through action and from the judgement of that action. American politicians as well as corporations need to take note of this unique verdict in French courts.

A Modest Proposal for Good

Granted we are talking about international law, but in the Nuremberg trials, culpability could apply to the individual agent even when a government orders crimes be committed against the rights of civilian human beings. With individuals, the intent arguments were focused on the clear and certain knowledge that the defendants knew the consequences of their actions. The Good Decision Project’s process starts with the need for personal reflection of intent itself which boils down to this question;  Does the intention of my action feel good to me. If it doesn’t at any level, the light for proceeding with the action shifts from green to yellow or red. But the good decision requires one to also take in the social context of community.  How will my intentions impact the context of community?  The matter of legality is only the third level of the process.  The French corporation seems to have errored at all three levels.  The relevance of this stretches to the immigration deportation actions occurring right now in the United States.  Justice will eventually grind its wheels right though the crimes being committed on our streets and in the detention centers just as certainly as winter wraps up the fall to produce spring. That will be painful for many people. Good decisions can only rise from good intentions.