Abstract
This article applies ‘macro’ legal analysis to the challenge of legal reform related to corporate responsibility for human rights violations and degradation of the environment. It recognises that the approaches from different communities of lawyers to the negative impacts on human rights and the environment caused by companies, sometimes operate in isolation from each other, are not always mutually supportive, can lead to a fragmentation of effort, and may not address the root causes of the problem. In particular, this article analyses the extent to which existing approaches tend to address symptoms of the issues, rather than the root causes themselves. It makes the case that in this regard specific root causes exist within the frameworks of corporate law in all jurisdictions and various aspects of international economic law too. To carry out the study, it employs macro legal analysis, a methodology not previously applied in this field, as a means of developing an understanding of the legal frameworks that, it argues, influence corporate decision making that can affect human rights and the environment. It undertakes an analysis that incorporates relevant corporate law, World Trade Organisation (WTO) law, international investment law, the law relating to multilateral development banks (MDBs), and international insurance law. By using this form of anlaysis it is possible to show how legal frameworks can operate in unison, reinforcing each other providing a cumulative effect that can influence corporate decision makers. Finally, based on the results of the analysis, it suggests a possible strategy of macro-level reforms that could be applied to the re-design of relevant legal frameworks to better facilitate the full protection of human rights and to achieve net zero degradation of the environment. As a result it seeks to demonstrate how this approach can be strategically applied by both human rights and environmental lawyers as a common pathway towards effective legal reform.
Highlights
Within the general field of business, human rights and the environment, a strong body of work over numerous decades has successfully established the causative links between companies and harms suffered by individuals, communities, and the environment
This section considers the implications and conclusions that can be drawn from the results of the foregoing analysis in the context of developing pathways for coherent integrated approaches to the issue of corporate human rights violations and environmental degradation. It does this by firstly addressing the differences that the results of macro legal analysis have with micro legal analysis within the same context and what this can mean in terms of the practice of research related to business, human rights and the environment
The analysis demonstrates that there is a range of legal frameworks that directly impact the outcomes related to human rights and the environment within the context of the operations of companies
Summary
Within the general field of business, human rights and the environment, a strong body of work over numerous decades has successfully established the causative links between companies and harms suffered by individuals, communities, and the environment. These are important initiatives that represent exceptions to the general trend in the field of corporate responsibility for human rights and environmental issues This is because they represent the partial reform of legal frameworks that this article argues, represent root causes of corporate decision making that can affect human rights and the environment. For the purposes of this analysis, it can be emphasised that notwithstanding the immense value of these types of initiatives, they do not intrinsically address what this article argues are some of the root causes of corporate decision making, found in international legal frameworks, that have negative impacts on human rights and the environment Such initiatives tend to provide voluntary incentives for companies to comply with, rather than mandatory legal requirements. This article contends that it is necessary to understand the impacts that those legal frameworks have on the decision making of corporate actors to have a clearer picture of the reasons why companies make the types of decisions that that they do vis à vis human rights violations and environmental degradation; it contends that this understanding can be sought and found through macro legal analysis
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