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Free keywords:
transnational corporations – multinational enterprises – international hu-
man rights – corporate social responsibility – extraterritorial jurisdiction –
tort law – corporate crime
Abstract:
Current regulatory efforts in the European Union (EU) (the proposal for a
Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive) and in the United Nations
(UN) (the draft for a Legally Binding Instrument to Regulate, in Interna-
tional Human Rights Law, the Activities of Transnational Corporations and
other Business Enterprises) seek to bring States to activate and operationalise
their domestic public law, private law, and criminal law for preventing and mitigating human rights abuses in the context of transnational business
activities.
The paper maps the current legal landscape, including the international,
European, and Inter-American case law on human rights obligations of
business actors. It argues against a direct opposability of international human
rights treaties against business actors, with the exception of peremptory
human rights. The paper uses the domestic law examples of the French Loi
de Vigilance and the German Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz to explain
how the various levels and branches of law can complement each other, with
private and administrative law standing in the foreground, and criminal legal
enforcement as a means of last resort. The national and potential European
rules need to be aligned to the overarching standards set by international
human rights law. The combination of international law with domestic
administrative, private, and criminal law promises an effective enforcement of
human rights vis-à-vis global corporations.
