Corporate Obligations Under International Law

This book examines the extent to which international law places obligations directly on corporate entities. It is often argued that corporations are bound by, inter alia, the same human rights and environmental obligations that states have. This book examines the source of these supposed obligations in treaty law, international custom, and in internationalized contracts, to determine whether they really can be transposed to corporations so easily. The focus of the book is on the regulation by international law of private corporate conduct. It examines whether corporate obligations, namely obligations binding directly upon a corporation under positive international law, have indeed emerged, and if so, whether corporations may be systemically included in the predominantly state-centric framework of international law. It investigates the challenges facing international law as a result of the potential emergence of corporate obligations, and engages in a structural analysis of what corporate obligations under international human rights law might entail. Ultimately, it warns against conceptualizing corporations as both holders and potential violators of human rights, explaining why they are not automatically bound by the same obligations that are imposed on states.

This book is about the theory of corporations as subjects of private international law. It aims to show the true extent and depth of legal and jurisdictional problems that states commonly face now, dealing with allocation of cross-border corporate relations and other relations closely connected with them in the appropriate system of law and jurisdiction. This work rests on the idea that in the united but diverse and contradictory world founded upon eternal laws, law should be characterized by the same qualities. The main end of private international law should be to support these qualities of the world and law bringing order to it. This book is a manual for jurists, practitioners of law and academics, who need research covering specific legal and jurisdictional issues in a corporate sphere and probes the issue of the place of private international law of corporations in national systems of law, when viewed through institutional, scientific, practical, strategic and economic dimensions. This book examines the issues concerned with allocation of cross-border corporate relations and other relations closely connected with them in the appropriate system of law and jurisdiction resting on the idea of distinct public policy with inherent public interest. It provides a careful study of institutional, scientific, practical, strategic and economic aspects of private international law of corporations as it was, is and ought to be. This is to show what was done, what we have at present and what needs to be done in this specific area in a manner suggesting a simple and concise reasoning within the confines of scientific, systematic and historical treatment of the issue in study.

In General Principles for Business and Human Rights in International Law Ludovica Chiussi Curzi offers a critical analysis of the relevance of general principles of law in the multifaceted business and human rights field.

Intro -- General Principles for Business and Human Rights in International Law -- Copyright -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Table of Treaties -- Other International Instruments -- Table of Cases -- General Introduction -- The Heart of the Matter -- 1 Research Question and Outline of the Book -- 2 Note on Terminology -- 2.1 Corporations -- 2.2 General Principles of Law -- 2.3 Responsibility, Liability and Accountability -- 2.4 Corporate Social Responsibility and Business and Human Rights -- PART I A Public International Law Framework for Business and Human Rights -- Introduction -- 1 Business-Related International Human Rights Standards -- 1.1 The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises -- 1.2 The ILO Tripartite Declaration -- 1.3 The UN Global Compact -- 1.4 The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights -- 1.5 Non-Legally Binding Instruments (per se) -- 2 Corporations and Human Rights under Treaty Law -- 2.1 The Search for Corporate Obligations under Existing Human Rights Treaties -- 2.1.1 The Two UN Covenants -- 2.1.2 The ILO Core Labour Conventions -- 2.1.3 Regional Human Rights Treaties -- 2.2 The Drive for Corporate Obligations through a New Treaty -- 2.2.1 The UN International Code of Conduct for Transnational Corporations -- 2.2.2 The UN Draft Norms on Transnational Corporations -- 2.2.3 The Current Negotiations of a Treaty on Business and Human Rights -- 3 Corporations and Human Rights under Customary International Law -- 3.1 Human Rights as Customary International Law -- 3.2 Corporations as Addressees of Customary Human Rights Rules -- 3.3 The Plausibility of a Customary Rule on Corporate Liability -- 3.4 Corporations and the Making of Customary International Law -- 4 General Principles of Law: A Forgotten Source -- 4.1 The History of Article 38(1)(c) of the ICJ Statute.

This book addresses one of the core challenges in the corporate social responsibility (or business and human rights) debate: how to ensure adequate access to remedy for victims of corporate abuses that infringe upon their human rights. However, ensuring access to remedy depends on a series of normative and judicial elements that become highly complex when disputes are transnational. In such cases, courts need to consider and apply different laws that relate to company governance, to determine the competent forum, to define which bodies of law to apply, and to ensure the adequate execution of judgments. The book also discusses how alternative methods of dispute settlement can relate to this topic, and the important role that private international law plays in access to remedy for corporate-related human rights abuses. This collection comprises 20 national reports from jurisdictions in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia, addressing the private international law aspects of corporate social responsibility. They provide an overview of the legal differences between geographical areas, and offer numerous examples of how states and their courts have resolved disputes involving private international law elements. The book draws two preliminary conclusions: that there is a need for a better understanding of the role that private international law plays in cases involving transnational elements, in order to better design transnational solutions to the issues posed by economic globalisation; and that the treaty negotiations on business and human rights in the United Nations could offer a forum to clarify and unify several of the elements that underpin transnational disputes involving corporate human rights abuses, which could also help to identify and bridge the existing gaps that limit effective access to remedy. Adopting a comparative approach, this book appeals to academics, lawyers, judges and legislators concerned with the issue of access to remedy and reparation for corporate abuses under the prism of private international law.

This book deals with two important aspects of the place of corporate bodies in international law. The author examines, first, in relation to both private and State-owned corporations, the problems of diplomatic protection, nationalization and State responsibility. Second, he discusses some problems of those corporate entities which owe their existence to international law, whether international organizations proper or common inter-State enterprises. These questions are all ones of continuing practical interest.

This book critically evaluates the Ruggie Framework and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and investigates the normative foundations as well as the nature, extent and enforcement of corporate obligations for the realisation of human rights.

"This book explores the evolving role of international law in directing and controlling the conduct of business enterprises, in particular multinational corporations, with respect to the protection of the environment, the sustainable use of natural resources, and the respect of inter-related human rights. It assesses the progress and continuing limitations in the identification of international standards of corporate environmental accountability and responsibility, and their implementation by international organizations. This assessment shows the extent to which the international community has conceptually and operationally clarified its expectations about acceptable corporate conduct. This second edition of Elisa Morgera's book reflects the intensified convergence of international standard-setting efforts on corporate environmental accountability, with parallel international developments on business and human rights and the environment. It also explores the recent emergence of substantive international standards of corporate environmental responsibility, which have arisen from a growing number of sectoral guidelines. Equally, it points to the remaining divergences in the content of international standards of corporate environmental accountability and responsibility, which reflect differing views among States of their international obligations to ensure the protection of the environment and the respect of human rights.?--Provided by publisher.