Between 1974 and 1976, the “Russell Tribunal II on Repression in Brazil, Chile and Latin America” convened three times in Rome and Brussels to address state crimes and corporate violence committed during the dictatorships in Latin America. Its second session focussed entirely on the role of transnational corporations in the repression in countries under investigation, trying to make sense of the link between the repressive regimes installed in the region and economic exploitation by transnational corporations. Based on the archival material from the Russell Tribunal II and interviews with surviving participants, we are currently studying how the people involved with the Russell Tribunal II tried to make sense – politically and legally – of the responsibility of transnational corporations for systematic human rights abuses.