The Legal Research Society

Thursday 22 May, 5pm, Taylor A19 Jernej Letnar Cernic, 'Fundamental Human Rights Obligations of Corporations' Abstract: This paper argues that fundamental human right obligations of corporations derive primarily from national legal orders and only secondarily from international level, whereas both draw their foundations from international value system. The tenets of every normative system are principles and rules that create rights and obligations of the subjects/participants of that system. Validity of any positive norm derives its legal authority from the membership in a legal order, which gives it a binding force. Legal authority means a source of law where a positive law norm is derived from. Legal scholarship has so far predominantly focused on international legal obligations of corporations. In contrast, the present paper argues that fundamental human rights obligations of corporations derive its legal authority from national normative orders and only secondary from inter...

Corporations are today major influences on our lives. From the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations while only 49 are states. While it is could be said that economic development coupled with the rule of law and democracy could be the one best for the entire spectrum of human rights, corporations, especially some transnational corporations, often avoid any from of legal responsibility when they commit human rights violations. Then there is inequality in international legal system. International Law on Foreign Investment guarantees protection to corporations from loosing their investments when investing in developing countries with at times fragile economic and legal systems of the. This is coupled with wide several bilateral or multilateral investment treaties which require States to equally treat foreign investors. In turn, corporations are not asked in any international legal instrument to comply at minimum with fundamental human rights norms. This inequality derive...