Cartographie du déficit de responsabilité des sociétés transnationales de la Common Law pour les violations des droits de l’homme et des normes du travail à l’étranger

David Cabrelli

Revue internationale de droit économique, 2021, vol. t. XXXV, issue 4, 151-178

Abstract: Despite the recent expansion in the scope of liability in the law of tort in the Common Law, there remains a tangible accountability gap in the case of transnational corporations (?TNC?) incorporated in England and Wales who either own or control organisations that have committed breaches of labour standards or human rights when they operate overseas. What this gap represents, is a practical dead-end for workers or citizens who have been injured by the conduct of those overseas entities and sought to recover the losses that they have suffered from the TNC in the English courts applying English Law. In this paper, it is argued that the relevant private law doctrines and principles applicable in the Common Law ? in the case of contract, private international, tort, and company law ? are constitutive, rather than simply expressions, of this accountability gap. This is surprising if one considers the fundamental values that animate existing private laws and product liability rules, which seek to either prevent harm from occurring in the first place, or to offer some redress where that does in fact happen. In this article, the author examines whether it might be possible to modify the existing doctrines of English private and company law to reach an outcome where TNCs are held liable where that is warranted, e.g. in respect of overseas disasters or events that cause human casualties or severe injuries and for which the TNC bears some or all responsibility.

Keywords: English Law; accountability; transnational corporations; breaches of labour standards or human rights. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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