Commentary on the OHCHRRs Study on Domestic Law Remedies: Corporate Liability for Gross Human Rights Abuses

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika R. George ◽  
Lisa J. Laplante
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Corporate Liability ◽  
Domestic Law

Corporate Liability Design for Human Rights Abuses: Individual and Entity Liability for Due Diligence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Friedman
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
Corporate Liability ◽  
Human Rights Due Diligence ◽  
Individual Human

Abstract In this article, I critically review the economic theory of corporate liability design, focusing on the allocation of liability between a corporation and its individual human agents. I apply this theory to transnational commercial contexts where human rights abuses occur and assess the likely efficacy of some putative liability regimes, including regimes requiring corporations to undertake human rights due diligence throughout their global supply chains. I advance a set of general considerations justifying the efficacy of due diligence in relation to alternative liability regimes. I argue, however, that due diligence regimes will likely under-deter severe human rights abuses unless they are supported by substantial entity-level sanctions and, in at least some cases, by supplementary liability for individual executives. The analysis has significant policy implications for current national and international efforts to enforce human rights norms against corporations.

Extracurricular International Criminal Law

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 412-447
Author(s):  
Mark A. Drumbl
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Corporate Liability

This article unpacks the jurisprudential footprints of international criminal courts and tribunals in domestic civil litigation in the United States conducted under the Alien Tort Statute (ats). The ats allows victims of human rights abuses to file tort-based lawsuits for violations of the laws of nations. While diverse, citations to international cases and materials in ats adjudication cluster around three areas: (1) aiding and abetting as a mode of liability; (2) substantive legal elements of genocide and crimes against humanity; and (3) the availability of corporate liability. The limited capacity of international criminal courts and tribunals portends that domestic tort claims as avenues for redress of systematic human rights abuses will likely grow in number. The experiences of us courts of general jurisdiction as receivers of international criminal law instruct upon broader patterns of transnational legal migration and reveal an unanticipated extracurricular legacy of international criminal courts and tribunals.

scholarly journals The Future of Corporate Liability for Extra territorial Human Rights Abuses: The dutch Case Against Shell

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 36-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Jägers ◽  
Katinka Jesse ◽  
Jonathan Verschuuren
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Nongovernmental Organization ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Transnational Companies ◽  
Royal Dutch Shell ◽  
Petroleum Development ◽  
Corporate Liability ◽  
Dutch Court ◽  
The U.S

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. limits the potential of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) as a means of legal redress for victims of human rights abuses caused by transnational companies. Interestingly enough, almost simultaneously with the Kiobel decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, a Dutch court issued its rulings in five cases concerning Nigerian individuals, supported by a Dutch environmental nongovernmental organization (NGO), in their claims against Royal Dutch Shell (RDS), headquartered in the Netherlands, and its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, Ltd. (SPDC). These cases relate to oil spills for which the plaintiffs believed Shell should be held liable.

scholarly journals IMPLEMENTING HUMAN RIGHTS DUE DILIGENCE THROUGH CORPORATE CIVIL LIABILITY

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 789-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Bueno ◽  
Claire Bright
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Liability ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Liability ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Human Rights Due Diligence

AbstractSince the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights the relationship between human rights due diligence (HRDD) and corporate liability has been a source of legal uncertainty. In order to clarify this relationship, this article compares and contrasts civil liability provisions aiming at implementing HRDD. It explains the legal liability mechanisms in the draft Treaty on Business and Human Rights and in domestic mandatory HRDD legislation and initiatives such as the French Duty of Vigilance Law and the Swiss Responsible Business Initiative. It compares these developments with the emerging case law on parent company and supply chain liability for human rights abuses. It explores the potentially perverse effects that certain civil liability provisions and court decisions might have on companies’ practices. Finally, it makes recommendations for the design of effective liability mechanisms to implement HRDD.

Documents and Source Material

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
Source Materials ◽  
Israeli Occupation

This section comprises JPS summaries and links to international, Arab, Israeli, and U.S. documents and source materials from the quarter spanning 16 May-15 November 2017. Fifty years of Israeli occupation was the focus of reports by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Oxfam that documented the ongoing human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories. Other notable documents include Israeli NGO Gisha and UNSCO reports on the ten-year Gaza siege, Al Jazeera's interactive timeline of the Nakba, and an exchange of letters between the ACLU and U.S. senators on anti-BDS legislation.

India

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shreya Atrey
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Appellate Courts ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
High Courts ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Domestic Law

This chapter provides an expository account of Indian appellate courts’ engagement with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the developing case law on disability rights. As a dualist State, India has ratified but not incorporated the CRPD into its domestic law. This has not deterred frequent references to the CRPD in litigation at the highest level. The appellate courts—High Courts and the Supreme Court—have resorted to the CRPD in diverse ways. The analysis of the small but not insignificant body of case law shows that these instances can be classified into two broad themes of ‘citation’ and ‘interpretation’. In the final analysis, the overall impact of references to the CRPD can be considered largely positive but still modest in the absence of new legislation embracing the human rights framework and social model of the CRPD in India.

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