by Steve Nickelsburg, David DiBari and Rebecca Hekman

The international legal obligation to protect human rights has long been understood to be the province of sovereign states, not of corporations or individuals.  In the United States, litigation against corporations invoking statutes such as the Alien Tort Statute, the Torture Victim Protection Act, and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act has blurred that line – providing private plaintiffs a cause of action to address alleged human rights violations in a variety of circumstances.

The nuance of that litigation would take numerous additional posts to cover, but even against that backdrop, for corporations the general requirement to respect human rights traditionally has been more a matter of social expectation than legal and regulatory requirements, falling under the rubric “corporate social responsibility” (“CSR”) rather than “hard law.” Continue reading →