Introduction

  • Nerea Magallón Elósegui University of the Basque Country
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18543/ced-63-2020pp25-29
Keywords: businesses and human rights, access to justice, claim procedures, corporate social responsibility, extraterritoriality, international trade, certification systems, conflict minerals, international civil procedural law, due diligence, public procurement

Abstract

Liability claims against transnational corporations before the courts are one of the possible steps to take towards ensuring respect for human rights in their conduct of business in third States. As stated in Article 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, access to justice is a fundamental right. However, the human rights violations committed by corporations have an irretrievable connection with denial of justice. The existing order does not provide an adequate response, as ‘governability gaps’ and the scope of influence of companies escape the regulatory and coercive power of the State of origin. The host countries’ lack of capacity or will to ensure that companies operating in their territory respect human rights; the absence of effective judicial systems; and the legal obstacles created by complicated business structures all lead to the need for complementary, more regularised business behaviour at the operational level.

Published online: 30 September 2020

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Author Biography

Nerea Magallón Elósegui, University of the Basque Country
Ramon y Cajal Researcher and Professor of Private International Law at Basque Country University. Doctor in Law with extraordinary prize by the University of the Basque Country. She has been a visiting scholar at Max Planck Institut, Für Ausländisches Und Internationales (Hamburg) at University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), at L’Ecole doctorale de Droit international, Droit européen, relations internationales et Droit comparé de l’Université Panthéon Assas, (Paris) and at International Institute for The Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), (Rome). She has been teaching (at both BA and Master levels) Private International Law, European Private Law and International Commerce at the University of Buenos Aires, UNED, Basque Country University, at Santiago de Compostela University, at Deusto University and UNIR. She has been involved in several research projects, six of them European Research Projects financed by the European Commission (Directorate-General Justice). She is the author of two books, and several book chapters, and she has published numerous papers in scientific journals. Her current research interests are focused on International Private Law, European Law, Successions Law and Businesses and Human rights. She is a member of Globernance. Institute for Democratic Governance, Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País, Academia Vasca de Derecho and Spanish Association of International Law Teachers, too.
Published
2020-09-30
How to Cite
Magallón Elósegui, Nerea. 2020. “Introduction”. Deusto Journal of European Studies, no. 63 (September), 25-29. https://doi.org/10.18543/ced-63-2020pp25-29.
Issue
No. 63 (2020): Business and Human Rights
Section
Introduction

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