scholarly journals Environmental Degradation and Human Rights Violation: A Cursory Overview of the Potential of the Existing Frameworks to Hold Multinational Corporations Accountable

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-173
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Sarpong Owusu
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Regulatory Mechanisms ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
International Court ◽  
International Instruments

It has been reported that an estimated 100,000 multinational corporations (MNCs) account for about a quarter of the global gross domestic product (GDP), generating a turnover which exceeds, by leaps and bounds, the public budget of many countries. Unfortunately, the manner of operation of the ever-expanding MNCs appears to engender rampant environmental degradation and wanton human rights violations in host nations. Even though frameworks aiming to regulate the activities of these corporations are in place, the effectiveness of the said regulatory mechanisms has been vociferously challenged, time and again, by academics and experts across the globe. Drawing on a range of pertinent case law as well as secondary sources, this article attempts to critically explore, and navigate, the extent to which the existing regulatory frameworks have been effective in holding MNCs accountable for their environment and human rights-related transgressions. The article establishes that the extant regulatory mechanisms have, to some extent, however miniscule, helped to promulgate awareness and inculcate environmental and human rights issues into corporate culture. It, however, demonstrates that these frameworks are grossly inadequate owing to the complex nature of the MNCs, the overtly broad and obscure nature of the existing international instruments and the reeking corruption in domestic political and judicial institutions. It recommends the codification of binding documents, backed by adequate compliance mechanisms, and the creation of an International Court having special jurisdiction over all MNCs. 

Balkanizing Jurisdiction: Reflections on Article IX of the Genocide Convention in Croatia v. Serbia

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 893-897 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAYAM AKHAVAN
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Genocide Convention ◽  
Advisory Opinion ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
International Instruments ◽  
Fundamental Values

AbstractWhen it first encountered the Genocide Convention in its 1951 Advisory Opinion, the International Court of Justice recognized that the treaty reflected the ‘most elementary principles of morality’. Its provisions were to be read broadly, in light of the Convention's transcendent object and purpose. This expansive approach stands in contrast with the narrow interpretation of Article IX in the recent Judgment in Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Croatia v. Serbia) case. This article is a commentary on the retroactive obligation to punish genocide under the Convention with regard to acts occurring prior to its entry into force for that state. It concludes that the Court's narrow interpretation of its jurisdiction ratione temporis raises wider questions for its contemporary jurisprudence, namely, whether it will interpret human rights treaties enshrining fundamental values any differently than other international instruments.

scholarly journals Globalization and Exploitation: The End of an Era

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ipek Ertan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
International System ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Theory To Practice ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
International Laws ◽  
Conflicting Interests ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
Naming And Shaming

With globalization and the changing distribution of power in the international system, non-state actors like Multinational Corporations (MNCs) have become very crucial players that need to be regulated by international laws, just as states are. However, the conflicting interests of business and human rights make it hard to regulate human rights violations by MNCs due to inadequate international mechanisms in place, which were not designed to apply to MNCs. This paper examines the inefficiencies of the current international regulatory frameworks and goes on to introduce “naming and shaming” of MNCs as an efficient method of regulation by explaining its impacts. Finally, it facilitates a transition from theory to practice, inspired by a project started by Social Justice Connection, an NGO located in Montreal. This further suggests a new international regulatory framework partnered with the World Trade Organization (WTO).

International Human Rights Law and the Access of Children of Asylum Seekers to Social Assistance in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ademola Oluborode Jegede ◽  
Puleng Letuka ◽  
Tivoneleni Edmund Lubisi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right ◽  
International Instruments

There is a massive presence of asylum seekers in South Africa. Amongst this population are children who need social assistance from the state distributed as ‘grants’, due to their dependence, vulnerability and developmental requirements. South Africa is a state party to international instruments on human rights and has a regulatory framework including the Constitution which allows for the application of these instruments and guarantees the right to social security for everyone. This article focuses on whether the existing corpus of international instruments on human rights and relevant domestic regulatory frameworks may allow children of asylum seekers the access to social assistance in South Africa. While demonstrating that the access to social assistance for children of asylum seekers is implied under international human rights instruments, the article establishes that this has not found expression in the application of existing legislation on social assistance in South Africa. By deploying an appropriate interpretive approach, courts may respond to this normative gap and thereby assist in guaranteeing the access of these children to social assistance in South Africa.

Can Multinational Corporations be responsible for human rights violation of its outsourcee company? Response of national or international law?

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-179
Author(s):  
Alessandro Suppa ◽  
Pavel Bureš
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Corporate Law ◽  
International Economy ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Original Question ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Human Rights Violation

SummaryNowadays, an important role in the world is played by Multinational Corporations (MNCs). They hire, produce, and influence the international economy, but also, they exploit, pollute. Their business activities might have a worldwide effect on human lives. The question of the responsibility of MNCs has drawn the attention of many scholars, mainly from the study field labelled “Business and Human Rights”. The present paper does not examine the topic under the same approach. The authors aim at presenting the issue in a broader perspective, exploring the concept of due diligence both in international and corporate law. In this paper, authors strategically use the uniformity of national legislations as a possible and alternative solution to the issue. They are aware of three fundamental factors: 1) the definition of MNCs needs to be as clear as possible, so to avoid any degree of uncertainty; 2) the outsourcing phenomenon interacts with that definition; 3) in case of no possibility to include outsourcing in the definition of MNC, the original question arises in a significant way.

Human Rights in a Neoliberal World

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeline Baer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Transformation Model ◽  
Central Research ◽  
Transformative Change ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Negative Effect

Chapter 2 presents the central research questions that drive the theoretical and empirical work of the book, outlines the “moments of social transformation” model used for analyzing human rights realization, and positions the book in relation to theoretical and contemporary policy debates. The chapter synthesizes the literatures on socioeconomic human rights fulfillment and the human right to water and sanitation. It introduces two key elements for implementing human rights: political will and state capacity, as well as some obstacles to rights realization, including lack of strong regulatory frameworks and accountability mechanisms. The chapter explores the tensions between markets and rights, finding that neoliberal approaches to water policy have a negative effect on rights fulfillment by weakening the state’s role, and it engages with critiques that the human rights frame is too narrow and vague to facilitate transformative change in the water sector.

International Court Authority

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikael Rask Madsen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Science ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
International Courts ◽  
International Court ◽  
Context Shapes ◽  
Criminal Matters ◽  
Over Time

Identifying the “varied authority” of international adjudicators as a common object of inquiry, this book develops a framework to conceptualize and analyze international court authority with the goal of assessing how contextual factors affect international courts’ authority, and therby their political and legal influence. Scholars drawn from a range of academic disciplines—namely law, political science, and sociology—have contributed to this book and examine the varied authority of thirteen international courts with jurisdictions that range from economic to human rights, to international criminal matters. Interdisciplinary commentaries reflect on what the framework and findings imply for the study of international court authority and legitimacy. Focusing on both global and regional adjudicatory systems, the chapters explore different ways in which contextual factors contribute to the fragility of each court’s authority over time and across the breadth of their jurisdiction. A conclusion pulls together the collective insights of how context shapes the authority of international courts.

Proportionality Balancing and Constitutional Governance

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alec Stone Sweet ◽  
Jud Mathews
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
Constitutional State ◽  
International Court ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Constitutional Justice ◽  
Proportionality Test ◽  
Basic Features

This book focuses on the law and politics of rights protection in democracies, and in human rights regimes in Europe, the Americas, and Africa. After introducing the basic features of modern constitutions, with their emphasis on rights and judicial review, the authors present a theory of proportionality that explains why constitutional judges embraced it. Proportionality analysis is a highly intrusive mode of judicial supervision: it permits state officials to limit rights, but only when necessary to achieve a sufficiently important public interest. Since the 1950s, virtually every powerful domestic and international court has adopted proportionality as the central method for protecting rights. In doing so, judges positioned themselves to review all important legislative and administrative decisions, and to invalidate them as unconstitutional when they fail the proportionality test. The result has been a massive—and global—transformation of law and politics. The book explicates the concepts of “trusteeship,” the “system of constitutional justice,” the “effectiveness” of rights adjudication, and the “zone of proportionality.” A wide range of case studies analyze: how proportionality has spread, and variation in how it is deployed; the extent to which the U.S. Supreme Court has evolved and resisted similar doctrines; the role of proportionality in building ongoing “constitutional dialogues” with the other branches of government; and the importance of the principle to the courts of regional human rights regimes. While there is variance in the intensity of proportionality-based dialogues, such interactions are today at the heart of governance in the modern constitutional state and beyond.

Conflict of Laws and the Return of Indigenous Peoples’ Cultural Property: A Latin American Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-456
Author(s):  
María Julia Ochoa Jiménez
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Latin American ◽  
National Level ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Property A ◽  
American Perspective ◽  
International Instruments ◽  
Conflict Of Law

Abstract:In Latin America, conflict-of-law norms have not appropriately considered the cultural diversity that exists in their legal systems. However, developments towards the recognition of Indigenous peoples’ human rights, at the international and national levels, impose the task of considering such diversity. In that regard, within the conflict-of-law realm, interpersonal law offers a useful perspective. This article proposes a conflict-of-law rule that can contribute to clarity and legal certainty, offering a sound way of dealing at the national level with Indigenous peoples’ claims for restitution of property with a cultural value for them, which is framed in international instruments on human rights.

Transnational constitutional aspects of the European Court of Human Rights

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-174
Author(s):  
GEIR ULFSTEIN
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Direct Effect ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Not Given ◽  
National Courts ◽  
European Court ◽  
International Court ◽  
International Legal Order

AbstractThe European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is an international court operating in the international legal order. Its judgments are not given direct effect in national law. In this sense we have a system of legal pluralism between international and national law. But the ECtHR has constitutional effects in national law through the weight placed on the Court’s practice by national courts. Therefore, constitutional principles are applicable in the interaction between the ECtHR and national courts. This article discusses the transnational constitutional aspects of the Court, and how this should guide the roles of, respectively, the ECtHR and national courts.

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