scholarly journals Responsibilities of Multinational Corporations on Environmental Issues

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Mahsa Hosseini Moghaddam ◽  
Ali Zare
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Multinational Companies ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Third ◽  
Responsible Behavior ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
A Company

Multinational corporations play more roles in social and cultural and political issues in this century. This growing trend in multinational companies, has led the international law, talk about "corporate social responsibility". One of the most important aspects of CSR is environmental issues. The question is that is there enough regulatory basis- at the local or international level- to guaranty responsible behavior of these companies. And in the cases of environmental damages which parts of a company should be responsive and compensate damages. Perhaps the assignment of responsibility in the actions against multinational companies on environmental issues is not too difficult; the reason is that losses are objective and external. Note that in many deserving cases, harm to the environmental rights is a violation of human rights, particularly the third generation of human rights.

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.

scholarly journals YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT: WHAT ROLE CAN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) PLAY IN CURBING THIS SOCIAL ILL IN SWAZILAND (ESWATINI) AND SOUTH AFRICA?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simangele D. Mavundla
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
International Law ◽  
Youth Unemployment ◽  
Youth Employment ◽  
African Youth ◽  
Corporate Social

This profound academic opinion advocates for youth employment by clearly arguing that even though the African Youth Charter (AYC) is not binding on states in as much as on corporates/businesses, at international law these same corporates/businesses have a role to play in ensuring that youth unemployment is curbed through invoking Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It will be argued that CSR is no longer only associated with philanthropy, but it is now part and parcel of promoting and protecting human rights in communities where businesses operate, such that they cannot turn a blind eye to social ills such as youth unemployment.

scholarly journals INFLUENCE OF THE RIGHT TO THE ENVIRONMENT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Akramosadat Kia
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Right

Nature is one of the most important pillars of human life, which is why the environment has been considered in all historical periods. At first, contemporary international law seeks to protect the environment as part of international environmental law, but the inadequacy of this protection and the need to protect the environment for Nowadays's human beings and future generations, the link between the environment and human rights It was considered because legal protection of human rights could be a means to protect the environment. Hence, in the context of the third generation of human rights, a new right called "the right to the environment" was created in international human rights instruments, in which the environment was raised as a human right. This right is not only a reminder of the solidarity rights that are categorized in the third generation of human rights, but also necessary for the realization of many human rights, civil, political or economic, social and cultural rights. However, the exercise of this right requires a level of development which in turn provides for a greater degree of environmental degradation. Hence, the international community since the nineties has promoted the idea of sustainable development at all levels of national, regional and the international has put it on its agenda.

NGO Strategies for Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility

2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morton Winston
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
Voluntary Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Financial Interests ◽  
Corporate Social Accountability ◽  
Naming And Shaming ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
National Governments

This article describes and evaluates the different strategies that have been employed by international human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in attempting to influence the behavior of multinational corporations (MNCs). Within the NGO world, there is a basic divide on tactics for dealing with corporations: Engagers try to draw corporations into dialogue in order to persuade them by means of ethical and prudential arguments to adopt voluntary codes of conduct, while confronters believe that corporations will act only when their financial interests are threatened, and therefore take a more adversarial stance toward them. Confrontational NGOs tend to employ moral stigmatization, or “naming and shaming,” as their primary tactic, while NGOs that favor engagement offer dialogue and limited forms of cooperation with willing MNCs.The article explains the evolving relationship between NGOs and MNCs in relation to human rights issues and defines eight strategies along the engagement/confrontation spectrum used by NGOs in their dealings with MNCs. The potential benefits and risks of various forms of engagement between NGOs and MNCs are analyzed and it is argued that the dynamic created by NGOs pursuing these different strategies can be productive in moving some companies to embrace their social responsibilities. Yet, in order for these changes to be sustainable, national governments will need to enact enforceable international legal standards for corporate social accountability.

Bringing Human Rights to Bear on Climate Change

Climate Law ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-179
Author(s):  
John H. Knox
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
The Third ◽  
Global Nature ◽  
Environmental Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Norms

This article provides a framework for considering how human rights norms have been, and may be, brought to bear on climate change. After describing how human rights norms have been applied to environmental issues generally, the article addresses the challenge of climate change, whose global nature complicates the application of environmental human rights norms. The third section summarizes the emerging human rights obligations of states with respect to climate change.

Locating Nature: Making and Unmaking International Law: Introduction

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 571-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
KISHAN KHODAY ◽  
VANESSA LAMB ◽  
TYLER MCCREARY ◽  
KARIN MICKELSON ◽  
USHA NATARAJAN ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Sustainable Livelihoods ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Environmental Harm ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Behavioural Patterns ◽  
The World

Environmental harm is of increasing concern to peoples and states all over the world, whether in relation to ensuring access to healthy air, water, food, and sustainable livelihoods, or coping with the diversity of challenges posed by changing climates and ecologies. While international lawyers have focused on crafting solutions to environmental problems, less attention is paid to the disciplinary role in fostering harmful and unsustainable behavioural patterns. Environmental issues are usually relegated to the specialized field of international environmental law. This project explores instead the role of nature in the general discipline, arguing that the natural environment is a determinative factor in shaping international law, and that assumptions about nature lie at the heart of disciplinary concepts such as sovereignty, development, economy, property, and human rights.

scholarly journals Contribution of language to the creation of corporate social capital

2019 ◽  
pp. 243-263
Author(s):  
Krishna S. Dhir
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Multinational Companies ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Do So

With increased globalization of trade and business in a knowledge-based economy, and increasing diversification of the workforce, there is increasing pressure on multinational companies to report, and even measure, their social capital. This article explores the role of language in the creation of corporate social capital. The language used in a corporation is an asset, which creates value and corporate social capital in the use and exchange of ideas. Linguists have long attempted to assess the value of language as a commodity, but with little success. This article offers an approach to overcome this difficulty and to measure the value of language as an element of corporate social capital. To do so, it draws an analogy between the functions of language and functions of currency. The article goes on to suggest that multinational corporations should hold a portfolio of language skills, much as it does a portfolio of currencies.

Three Human Rights Agendas

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 237-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Reidy
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Liability ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
International Order ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Political Obligations ◽  
The Third ◽  
Voluntary Initiative ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

In this paper I distinguish between three conceptions of human rights and thus three human rights agendas. Each is compatible with the others, but distinguishing each from the others has important theoretical and practical advantages. The first conception concerns those human rights tied to natural duties binding all persons to one another independent of and prior to any institutional context and the violation of which would “shock the conscience” of any morally competent person. The second concerns the institutional conditions necessary and sufficient for particularist legal and political obligations to take on prima facie moral force so that the members of different polities face one another in an asymmetric moral relationship, with each side having a rightful claim to political self-determination. The third concerns those human rights arising exclusively as a matter of positive international law out of the voluntary undertakings of legitimate polities within the international order. Each of these different conceptions is tied to a different human rights agenda. The second is tied to the struggle to realize recognitional norms of legitimacy within the international order. The third is tied to the ongoing effort to incorporate into positive international law through voluntary initiative an ever expanding moral consensus between legitimate polities. The first is tied to the emerging practice of humanitarian intervention and system of international criminal liability. Thus, while all human rights share certain features - they’re universal, and so on - human rights differ in important ways. Attending to these differences would likely improve both the theory and practice of human rights.

Customary International Law and U.S. Judicial Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 251-264
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Lee
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Law ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Courts ◽  
Judicial Power ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
The Third

This chapter describes specific points of divergence between the Third and Fourth Restatements of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States regarding how U.S. courts should engage with customary international law. The Third Restatement, adopted in 1987, envisioned U.S. courts fluent in and engaged with international law, deploying a U.S. foreign relations jurisprudence in dialogue with international law and lawyers. Customary international law was a central feature of this vision because it was the prime pathway for human rights litigation in federal courts when U.S. treaty-based human-rights initiatives had stalled. Appearing thirty years later, the Fourth Restatement exhibits a fundamentally different orientation toward customary international law. Customary international law is no longer embraced as it was in the Third Restatement as an opportunity to play offense, to advance the international law of human rights. That vision inspired a reaction among some U.S. legal scholars who questioned the U.S. federal law status of customary international law and the legitimacy of U.S. judges advancing the customary international law of human rights. The Fourth Restatement seeks a middle ground by defending against this revision of customary international law’s status role in the United States, concerned that the revisionist view might encourage and provide cover for U.S. courts to dismiss cases and claims with foreign policy ramifications that they should be adjudicating. The approaches of the two Restatements, taken together, have contributed to the disengagement of U.S. judges from customary international law altogether, to the detriment of U.S. conduct of foreign policy and contrary to the original constitutional specification of the judicial power of the United States as reflected in Article III, the Judiciary Act of 1789 that established the federal courts, and early historical practice.

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