Abstract: Class actions are increasingly being used in some countries’ jurisdictions as a vehicle to address human rights violations committed by corporations abroad, including violations of workers’ rights and harm of foreign nationals. Class actions in Canada, however, provide limited redress in such circumstances. Without such redress in Canada, it will remain impossible to hold transnational corporations incorporated in Canada accountable for the violation of international treaties or Customary International Law. In the first part of this paper I outline the current state of international human rights class actions in Canada. After discussing two cases that provide insight into the limitations of class actions as a mechanism for addressing human rights violations abroad, I discuss the potential causes of those limitations: jurisdictional issues, the corporate veil, and remedies. I argue that while human rights class actions are particularly unattractive to class counsel because of the aforementioned limitations, Canadian class actions regimes can be altered to address this shortfall and better assist those seeking justice for human rights violations abroad. The Canadian class actions regime and broader legal system can better provide access to justice for people who have experienced human rights violations abroad — through law reform that facilitates human rights cases coming before Canadian courts, amendments to current class actions legislation, and institutional changes. This paper explores how class actions can be part of the pursuit to hold accountable the entities committing human rights violations abroad.
Terra Duchene (Sun,) studied this question.