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Flavia Scabin - 27th May 2016
When Brazil was chosen to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup, there were celebrations all over the country. Football is widely recognised as a national passion; it is easier to make small talk about the national championship than about the weather and World Cup game days are usually considered non-official holidays. What could be better, […]
Nicholas Stump - 18th April 2016
The natural resource extraction industry has long wrought environmental, social, and economic devastation in Appalachia—a U.S. region historically defined by a deeply exploitative coal extraction mono-economy. However, in tandem with the (climate change-driven) global pivot towards non-carbon, cleaner energy sources, widely publicised market and legal developments have resulted in a systemic collapse of the once […]
Patrick McGinley - 23rd March 2016
World leaders met near Paris almost a century ago promising to cooperate to end the scourge of war. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson touted his country’s contributions to international cooperation leading to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles: “at last the world knows America as the savior of the world!”. Now, another historic international agreement negotiated near […]
Nicolas Carrillo-Santarelli - 11th March 2016
The previous post on the Kaliña and Lokono Peoples case explained how the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) tried to overcome its jurisdictional limitations in order to establish corporate responsibility to respect and protect human rights in light of recent developments. In doing so, the Court found that corporations can violate human rights and, […]
Nicolas Carrillo-Santarelli - 10th March 2016
In its recent judgment in the case of the Kaliña and Lokono Peoples v Suriname, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) referred to a hotly contested and popular topic: business and human rights. Despite being constrained by jurisdictional limits, the Court succeeded in denouncing corporate violations of human rights. This, the first post in […]
Lucia Berro and Carolina Leao - 27th January 2016
On November 5 2015, the Fundão dam—property of the mining company Samarco—collapsed, sending more than forty billion litres of ore tailings into a small town called Bento Rodrigues district, in the state of Minas Gerais. As a result, fifteen people died and four are missing, while the town itself was completely destroyed: 1469 hectares of […]
Anneloes Hoff - 26th January 2016
A recent ruling by the Court of Appeal in The Hague signals new hope on the horizon for victims seeking a judicial remedy for corporate negligence or human rights abuse. On 18 December 2015, the Dutch court ruled that four Nigerian farmers can bring Shell to court in the Netherlands for the environmental damage caused […]
Fabiana Di Lorenzo - 9th January 2016
Global Witness has recently presented the findings of a twelve-month investigation which revealed how the jade industry in Myanmar, worth nearly half of the country’s GDP, is enriching the state coffers while ripping out the benefits from ordinary local people and workers. The most precious jades in the world are found in the Kachin Hills […]
Benedict Coyne - 8th January 2016
Indigenous rights are currently going head to head with global climate injustice in Queensland, Australia. An important and novel judicial review case is afoot in the Federal Court of Australia, Brisbane, concerning a challenge by Adrian Burragubba of the Wangan and Jagalingou Peoples, to the proposed $16.5 billion Carmichael Coalmine in Queensland’s Galilee Coal Basin […]
Bellinda Chinowawa - 9th November 2015
The corporate entity has been described as the most effective structure for capital accumulation because it allows for the separation of ownership from management. The transnational corporation (TNC) in particular, is a significant social and economic presence. International law has not, however, advanced to the point where TNCs are considered to have human rights obligations […]
Nazreen Shaik-Peremanov - 26th October 2015
Through decades of complicit trade, blood diamonds have made their way from their African countries of origin across the Atlantic for cutting, polishing and beneficiation into European countries of export destination. Adorning the fingers of a few in these destinations, multinational corporations have maintained their consortiums to the peril of those who truly own this […]
Anneloes Hoff - 7th October 2015
The 24th of June 2015 was a historic day for climate litigation: the district court in The Hague ordered the Dutch government to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% by 2020 (as compared to 1990 levels). This is the minimum target set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The court […]