Human Rights Compliance and Accountability for U.S. Multinational Enterprises: A Principled Step Forward after Sosa and Kiobel

Abstract

This article proposes a Congressional statutory solution to resolve when a multinational corporation can be liable under the Alien Tort Statute on a claim for human rights abuses arising from a corporation’s overseas business operations. Under this proposal a U.S. multinational would be directly liable for human rights violations of its overseas subsidiary where it (1) failed to ensure that its overseas subsidiary had in place a reasonably effective and functioning human rights compliance system or (2) acquired knowledge of ongoing human rights violations by its overseas subsidiary and failed to take meaningful corrective measures in a timely way.

Keywords: corporations, multinational enterprises, human rights, international law, Alien Tort Statute, corporation law, corporate law

JEL Classification: K22, K33