Remedy for Human Rights Abuses Under Tort and International Law


Book Description

This second volume examines laws relating to the civil liabilities of corporations and states in connection with torts or other breaches of international law and human rights law. It illustrates how particular legal principles or rules can be applied or developed to promote corporate accountability, with legal duties that arise under tort law or statutory law. Businesses operate within particular legal regulatory regimes and also within the framework of obligations imposed in tort law. Such laws aim to shape or constrain behaviour for the protection of others in society. There are also environmental protection laws which aim to prevent the release of noxious or hazardous substances, and occupational health and safety laws for the protection of employees. The law of negligence in tort imposes general obligations on persons to take reasonable care to prevent harm to others in circumstances where there is a duty of care. Companies, as legal persons, are required to comply with such legal obligations. The book looks at the role of courts in upholding human rights obligations and providing a forum to resolve corporate human rights abuses issues. If the state does not regulate a specific issue of corporate human rights violations, then the court will address any lacuna in the domestic law by having recourse to (I) rules of international law; (II) general principles of international human rights law; (III) general principles of human rights law common to the major legal systems of the world; (IV) general principles of law that is in agreement with the fundamental requirements of rule of law, and the protection of human dignity and justice; and (V) the general principle of a duty of care (tort of negligence). The book will help lawyers, scholars, and students to see how corporate human rights violations can involve multiple legal principles.




Accountability and Corporate Human Rights Violations in Tort and International Law


Book Description

This volume identifies a coherent legal principle in order to establish a novel duty of care for corporate human rights violations and environmental damages. It examines whether tort and civil law offer better accountability and remedies for victims of corporate human rights abuses, and carries out an in-depth and critical analysis of the concept of corporate accountability. Moreover, a fundamental part of this book is devoted to examining the extent to which international criminal law influences international human rights law in its use of tort law and civil law remedies. Finally, the book sets out a theoretical mechanism for duty of care, as well as a proposal for the establishment of a ‘Hybrid International Transnational Corporation Court’ that would have the potential to effectively interpret the concept of the corporate duty of care under tort law.




Damages for Violations of Human Rights


Book Description

This volume analyses the legal grounds, premises and extent of pecuniary compensation for violations of human rights in national legal systems. The scope of comparison includes liability regimes in general and in detail, the correlation between pecuniary remedies available under international law and under domestic law, and special (alternative) compensation systems. All sources of human rights violations are embraced, including historical injustices and systematical and gross violations. The book is a collection of nineteen contributions written by public international law, international human rights and private law experts, covering fifteen European jurisdictions (including Central and Eastern Europe), the United States, Israel and EU law. The contributions, initially prepared for the 19th International Congress of Comparative law in Vienna (2014), present the latest developments in legislation, scholarship and case-law concerning domestic causes of action in cases of human rights abuses. The book concludes with a comparative report which assesses the developments in tort law and public liability law, the role of the constitutionalisation of the right to damages as well as the court practice related to the process of enforcement of human rights through monetary remedies. This country-by-country comparison allows to consider whether the value of protection of human rights as expressed in international treaties, ius cogens and in national constitutional laws justifies the conclusion that the interests at stake should enjoy protection under the existing civil liability rules, or that a new cause of action, or even a whole new set of rules, should be created in national systems.




Remedies in International Human Rights Law


Book Description

This treatment of the topic of remedies for human rights violations reviews the jurisprudence of international tribunals on these violations. It also provides a theoretical framework and a practical guide.




Remedy for Human Rights Abuses under Tort and International Law


Book Description

This second volume examines laws relating to the civil liabilities of corporations and states in connection with torts or other breaches of international law and human rights law. It illustrates how particular legal principles or rules can be applied or developed to promote corporate accountability, with legal duties that arise under tort law or statutory law. Businesses operate within particular legal regulatory regimes and also within the framework of obligations imposed in tort law. Such laws aim to shape or constrain behaviour for the protection of others in society. There are also environmental protection laws which aim to prevent the release of noxious or hazardous substances, and occupational health and safety laws for the protection of employees. The law of negligence in tort imposes general obligations on persons to take reasonable care to prevent harm to others in circumstances where there is a duty of care. Companies, as legal persons, are required to comply with such legal obligations. The book looks at the role of courts in upholding human rights obligations and providing a forum to resolve corporate human rights abuses issues. If the state does not regulate a specific issue of corporate human rights violations, then the court will address any lacuna in the domestic law by having recourse to (I) rules of international law; (II) general principles of international human rights law; (III) general principles of human rights law common to the major legal systems of the world; (IV) general principles of law that is in agreement with the fundamental requirements of rule of law, and the protection of human dignity and justice; and (V) the general principle of a duty of care (tort of negligence). The book will help lawyers, scholars, and students to see how corporate human rights violations can involve multiple legal principles.




Transnational Corporations and Human Rights


Book Description

The number of transnational corporations - including parent companies and subsidiaries - has exploded over the last forty years, which has led to a correlating rise of corporate violations of international human rights and environmental laws, either directly or in conjunction with government security forces, local police, state-run businesses, or other businesses. In this work, Gwynne Skinner details the harms of business-related human rights violations on local communities and describes the barriers, both functional and institutional, that victims face in seeking remedies. She concludes by offering solutions to these barriers, with a focus on measures designed to improve judicial remedies, which are the heart of international human rights law but often fail to deliver justice to victims. This work should be read by anyone concerned with the role of corporations in our increasingly globalized society.




Application of Foreign Law


Book Description

During the last decade Europe has undertaken an active and broad process of harmonisation of choice-of-law rules within the EU. However, this drastic movement towards a harmonised system has so far left aside a highly relevant issue: the application by judicial and non-judicial authorities of the foreign law. In full contrast to the little attention so far paid to it in the EU, this issue is said to be the crux of the conflict of laws. It violates legal certainty and contradicts the objective of ensuring full access to justice to all European citizens within the EU. This book provides a comparative study of the existing situation in all EU member states and drafts some basic principles for a future European instrument. It will become a highly useful tool for lawyers, judges, notaries, land registries, academics, prosecutors etc.







Human Rights Litigation Against Multinationals in Practice


Book Description

This book provides a thorough review of multinational human rights litigation in various countries where such litigation has been pursued, predominantly on behalf of victims in the Global South. It covers cases relating to environmental damage, occupational disease, human rights abuses involving complicity with state security, and in the context of supply chains. The volume is edited by Richard Meeran, who pioneered the first series of tort-based multinational parent company cases in the 1990s and whose firm, Leigh Day, has been at the forefront of this area for almost 30 years. Contributions come from highly experienced legal practitioners in the countries in question who have run many of the key ground-breaking cases, and who understand the opportunities and hurdles that arise in practice. They provide their perspectives and insights into the features of the relevant laws, procedures, and practical considerations in their respective legal systems. Chapters address the potential legal remedies that are available; the legal, procedural, and practical obstacles to justice including funding; as well as strategic issues. This developing area of corporate legal accountability has increasingly become an integral part of the field of business and human rights, which has grown significantly in recent decades. This collection is an essential guide to the field.




Human Rights in Business


Book Description

The capacity to abuse, or in general affect the enjoyment of human, labour and environmental rights has risen with the increased social and economic power that multinational companies wield in the global economy. At the same time, it appears that it is difficult to regulate the activities of multinational companies in such a way that they conform to international human, labour and environmental rights standards. This has partially to do with the organization of companies into groups of separate legal persons, incorporated in different states, as well as with the complexity of the corporate supply chain. Absent a business and human rights treaty, a more coherent legal and policy approach is required. Faced with the challenge of how to effectively access the right to remedy in the European Union for human rights abuses committed by EU companies in non-EU states, a diverse research consortium of academic and legal institutions was formed. The consortium, coordinated by the Globernance Institute for Democratic Governance, became the recipient of a 2013 Civil Justice Action Grant from the European Commission Directorate General for Justice. A mandate was thus issued for research, training and dissemination so as to bring visibility to the challenge posed and moreover, to provide some solutions for the removal of barriers to judicial and non-judicial remedy for victims of business-related human rights abuses in non-EU states. The project commenced in September 2014 and over the course of two years the consortium conducted research along four specific lines in parallel with various training sessions across EU Member States. The research conducted focused primarily on judicial remedies, both jurisdictional barriers and applicable law barriers; non-judicial remedies, both to company-based grievance. The results of this research endeavour make up the content of this report whose aim is to provide a scholarly foundation for policy proposals by identifying specific challenges relevant to access to justice in the European Union and to provide recommendations on how to remove legal and practical barriers so as to provide access to remedy for victims of business-related human rights abuses in non-EU states.