The international legal status of corporations is a contentious issue, as they do not easily fit within a system traditionally designed around states. This book assesses the ways in which corporations are bound by international human rights and environmental law, and the form their obligations take.

This book examines the extent to which international law places obligations directly on corporate entities. It is often argued that corporations are bound by, inter alia, the same human rights and environmental obligations that states have. This book examines the source of these supposed obligations in treaty law, international custom, and in internationalized contracts, to determine whether they really can be transposed to corporations so easily. The focus of the book is on the regulation by international law of private corporate conduct. It examines whether corporate obligations, namely obligations binding directly upon a corporation under positive international law, have indeed emerged, and if so, whether corporations may be systemically included in the predominantly state-centric framework of international law. It investigates the challenges facing international law as a result of the potential emergence of corporate obligations, and engages in a structural analysis of what corporate obligations under international human rights law might entail. Ultimately, it warns against conceptualizing corporations as both holders and potential violators of human rights, explaining why they are not automatically bound by the same obligations that are imposed on states.

In General Principles for Business and Human Rights in International Law Ludovica Chiussi Curzi offers a critical analysis of the relevance of general principles of law in the multifaceted business and human rights field.

In the process of resolving disputes, it is not uncommon for parties to justify actions otherwise in breach of their obligations by invoking the need to protect some aspect of the elusive concept of public order. Until this thoroughly researched book, the criteria and factors against which international dispute bodies assess such claims have remained unclear. Now, by providing an in-depth comparative analysis of relevant jurisprudence under four distinct international dispute resolution systems – trade, investment, human rights and international commercial arbitration – the author of this invaluable book identifies common core benchmarks for the application of the public order exception. To achieve the broadest possible scope for her analysis, the author examines the public order exception’s function, role and application within the following international dispute resolution systems: relevant World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements as enforced by the organization’s Dispute Settlement Body and Appellate Body; international investment agreements as enforced by competent Arbitral Tribunals and Annulment Committees under the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes; provisions under the Inter-American Convention of Human Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights as enforced by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, respectively; and the New York Convention as enforced by national tribunals across the world. Controversies, tensions and pitfalls inherent in invoking the public order exception are elucidated, along with clear guidelines on how arguments may be crafted in order to enhance prospects of success. Throughout, tables and graphs systematize key aspects of the relevant jurisprudence under each of the dispute resolution systems analysed. As an immediate practical resource for lawyers on any side of a dispute who wish to invoke or strengthen a public order exception claim, the book’s systematic analysis will be welcomed by lawyers active in WTO disputes, international investment arbitration, human rights law or enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. Academics and policymakers will find a signal contribution to the ongoing debate on the existence, legal basis, content and functions of the transnational public order.

This book is about the theory of corporations as subjects of private international law. It aims to show the true extent and depth of legal and jurisdictional problems that states commonly face now, dealing with allocation of cross-border corporate relations and other relations closely connected with them in the appropriate system of law and jurisdiction. This work rests on the idea that in the united but diverse and contradictory world founded upon eternal laws, law should be characterized by the same qualities. The main end of private international law should be to support these qualities of the world and law bringing order to it. This book is a manual for jurists, practitioners of law and academics, who need research covering specific legal and jurisdictional issues in a corporate sphere and probes the issue of the place of private international law of corporations in national systems of law, when viewed through institutional, scientific, practical, strategic and economic dimensions. This book examines the issues concerned with allocation of cross-border corporate relations and other relations closely connected with them in the appropriate system of law and jurisdiction resting on the idea of distinct public policy with inherent public interest. It provides a careful study of institutional, scientific, practical, strategic and economic aspects of private international law of corporations as it was, is and ought to be. This is to show what was done, what we have at present and what needs to be done in this specific area in a manner suggesting a simple and concise reasoning within the confines of scientific, systematic and historical treatment of the issue in study.

This book critically evaluates the Ruggie Framework and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and investigates the normative foundations as well as the nature, extent and enforcement of corporate obligations for the realisation of human rights.

"This book explores the evolving role of international law in directing and controlling the conduct of business enterprises, in particular multinational corporations, with respect to the protection of the environment, the sustainable use of natural resources, and the respect of inter-related human rights. It assesses the progress and continuing limitations in the identification of international standards of corporate environmental accountability and responsibility, and their implementation by international organizations. This assessment shows the extent to which the international community has conceptually and operationally clarified its expectations about acceptable corporate conduct. This second edition of Elisa Morgera's book reflects the intensified convergence of international standard-setting efforts on corporate environmental accountability, with parallel international developments on business and human rights and the environment. It also explores the recent emergence of substantive international standards of corporate environmental responsibility, which have arisen from a growing number of sectoral guidelines. Equally, it points to the remaining divergences in the content of international standards of corporate environmental accountability and responsibility, which reflect differing views among States of their international obligations to ensure the protection of the environment and the respect of human rights.?--Provided by publisher.

This book develops an analytical legal framework for determining the substantive fundamental rights obligations of corporations.

This book deals with two important aspects of the place of corporate bodies in international law. The author examines, first, in relation to both private and State-owned corporations, the problems of diplomatic protection, nationalization and State responsibility. Second, he discusses some problems of those corporate entities which owe their existence to international law, whether international organizations proper or common inter-State enterprises. These questions are all ones of continuing practical interest.