Causes of Action Behind Parent Companies’ Accountability for Human Rights Violations in National Courts

The vertical nature of international human rights norms presupposes states to be the addressee of human rights obligations. Therefore, there is no corporate liability for human rights abuses under international law. National legislation also does not contain any explicit rule that would allow to hold a parent company liable for human rights violations committed by its subsidiary or supplier abroad. Nevertheless, even in the absence of a clear legal basis, the national courts of Canada, France, the UK and the Netherlands, express their willingness to recognise the existence of responsibility to respect human rights on the part of corporations. Furthermore, modern case law of the aforementioned states represents possibilities to actually hold corporations liable under tort and criminal law for violations of this obligation. The reason for these “bottom — up” developments appears to be the shift of focus from corporate to victims protection. Corporate legal autonomy originated from strict corporate separation principle, as it becomes questionable nowadays. The need for the developments was born from a laissez-faire approach applied to corporations over the years that gave them the possibility to become invisible in their home states and therefore insulate liability for wrongdoings abroad. National courts of Canada, France, the UK and the Netherlands in course of their judicial practice invoke a great variety of possible causes of action to be the ground of imposing the responsibility to respect human rights on corporations and consequently holding them liable for violation of that obligation. Causes of action encompass international human rights law provisions, invocation of duty of care concept, human rights due diligence framework and criminal law provisions. However, the question whether any cause of action invoked by national courts in order to hold parent companies liable for human rights abuses committed by their subsidiaries or suppliers abroad meets the criteria of universality and applicability at the international level.