Accountability of Multinational Enterprises for Human Rights: Is Anything Going Differently?

The essay focuses on the issue of accountability of multinational enterprises for human rights to understand if some changes in international law, like the adoption of the International Law Commission’s Articles on the Responsibility of States for internationally wrongful acts and the promotion of corporate social responsibility, might support the idea of this accountability. The fact that some multinational enterprises have been sued before US courts under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) for their alleged involvement in human rights abuses has enhanced requests for such an accountability at an international law level. The essay identifies and analyses the relevant trends in international law to conclude that prevention, through market-based methods, might result in being an appropriate tool in relation to compliance with international human rights standards, including those provided for in peremptory rules.[...