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WiSe 23/24: Transnational Corporations and Human Rights

Hannah Franzki

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For most of us following the daily news, the need to regulate transnational corporations in order to prevent them from contributing to human rights violations seems obvious. Think of the production and export of ammunition used by unconstitutional regimes, the cooperation with authoritarian regimes to repress unionised works, the use of forced labour in the context of transnational production chains or the making of profit from business with actors involved in armed conflict. Several voluntary frameworks set out human rights standards for transnational regulation (such as the OECD Guidelines for multinational corporations or UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights). These are complemented by a number of recent national laws that establish due diligence obligations for transnational corporations with respect to human rights. But how did we come to think about the violence that occurs in the context of transnationally organised production networks as human rights violations? How did we come to think about transnational corporations as an entity that should have human rights obligations? What other concepts and frameworks were/are available to make sense of the negative impact that corporations have on the lives of many people around the world? In order to answer these questions, we will approach the topic of “Transnational Corporations and Human Rights” from various angles: we will be learning about contemporary regulatory frameworks in place, their conceptual underpinnings as well as political implications. In order to better understand the particularities of the current way to think and talk about the regulation of transnational corporations we will look at some of the issues historical perspective. This will take us to the chartered companies such as the British East India Company, but also to the decolonisation processes in the 1960s and 1970s, and the regulation of slave labour in the 1920s. Throughout the seminar, we will be linking the different situations and regulations we will be looking at through a set of theoretical and analytical, such as how to conceive of the corporation in relation to the State, how to make sense of the power of corporations and suitable concepts of violence to grasp the negative impact of corporate activity. I will be bringing a list of topics and theoretical questions to the seminar that I deem important when thinking about the regulation of corporations in international law. However, students will be able to approach these topics and theoretical questions through situations that they are particularly interested in. There will also be space to add topics. In addition to academic texts (historical, empirical and theoretical), policy documents and legal documents, we will approach the topic of corporations and human through films, literature and art works. In terms of didactic methods, the seminar combines input (from me or fellow students), group work, plenary discussions as well as individual writing sessions. No previous knowledge in International Law is required, but you should be open to reading legal documents (and the related academic literature). close