Full Description
This volume offers a systematic overview of the different tools through which the human rights accountability of transnational corporations may be improved. It first examines the responsibility of States in controlling transnational corporations, emphasizing both the limits imposed by the protection of the rights of investors under investment treaties and the potential of the US Alien Tort Claims Act and other similar extra-territorial legislations. It then turns to self-regulation by transnational corporations, through the use of codes of conduct or international framework agreements. It then discusses recent attempts at the global level to improve the human rights accountability of corporations by the direct imposition on corporations of obligations under international law. Finally, it considers the use of public procurement policies or of conditionalities in the lending policies of multilateral lending institutions in order to incentivize TNCs to behave ethically. Altogether, the book offers a rigorous legal analysis of these different developments and critically appraises their potential.
Contents
1. The Challenge of Imposing Human Rights Norms on Corporate Actors
Olivier De Schutter
Part I. The Responsibilities of States in Controlling Transnational Corporations
2. Beyond Unocal: Conceptual Problems in Using International Norms to Hold Transnational Corporations Liable under the Alien Tort Claims Act
Andrew J Wilson
3. The Effect of Bilateral Investment Treaties on Human Rights Enforcement and Realization
Ryan Suda
4. Competing for Foreign Direct Investment through the Creation of Export Processing Zones: The Impact on Human Rights
Chu Yun Juliana Nam
5. The North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation: An Effective Compromise between Harmonization of Labor Rights and Regulatory Competition?
Ana A Piquer
Part II. Self-regulation by Transnational Corporations
6. Corporate Codes of Conduct and the Human Rights Accountability of Transnational Corporations: A Small Piece of a Larger Puzzle
Fiona McLeay
7. International Framework Agreements: A Collaborative Paradigm for Labor Relations
Lisa R Price
Part III. Imposing Direct Obligations on Transnational Corporations under International Law
8. The Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A Case Study on Corporate Complicity in Human Rights Abuses
Asimina-Manto Papaioannou
9. Corporations and the International Criminal Court
Cristina Chiomenti
10. The Lack of Enforcement in the United Nations Draft Norms: Benefit or Disadvantage?
Jacob Gelfand
11. Overt and Hidden Accomplices. Transnational Corporations' Range of Complicity for Human Rights Violations
Inés Tófalo
Part IV. Incentivizing Socially Responsible Corporate Conduct
12. The Promotion of Human Rights by Selective Public Procurement under International Trade Law
Katherine Zeisel
13. A Role for the International Finance Corporation in Integrating Environmental and Human Rights Standards into Core Project Covenants: Case Study of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline Project
Terra Eve Lawson-Remer
