The Shortcomings of Traditional Legal Solutions
This chapter discusses the ineffectiveness of national-level control over multinational enterprises—the legal control over a subsidiary of a multinational company by the host State, and the legal control over a multinational parent company by the home State. In addition, the chapter discusses the significant limitations to ensuring the environmentally sound conduct of business under international law. To that end, it focuses on State responsibility, civil and criminal liability in international environmental law, and international criminal law. The chapter then contrasts multinationals’ significant degree of protection under international investment law, to the protection afforded by international human rights law to victims of substandard conduct by private companies, including from an environmental perspective.