Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-9q27g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-24T15:30:59.990Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Corporations, CSR and Self Regulation: What Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The current global financial crisis has necessitated a questioning of some of the fundamental theories and assumptions, particularly the free-market theory, on which regulation of business enterprises, including multinational corporations (MNCs), have been based. Specifically, in the area of corporate social responsibility (CSR), this paper explores two crucial issues. The first is the implication for our understanding of the obligations of corporations to CSR in light of the scale of impacts on ordinary citizens, and their role in bailing out failed banks which owed them no direct legal obligations. The second is the continued reliance on a voluntary framework for CSR. Just as the financial crisis resulted from the largely unregulated nature of global financial institutions, this paper demonstrates, through various country examples in the resources sector, that the unregulated nature of CSR obligations on MNCs has had dire effects, comparable to that of the financial crisis, on populations. If corporations have, through personal greed and irresponsibility, evidently failed to effectively regulate themselves even in their core areas of business necessary for their own survival, how much less do we expect of effective self-regulation in the area of CSR?

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 BBC News, ‘Timeline: Global credit crunch’ (20 October 2008), available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7521250.stm.Google Scholar

2 Anthony Faiola, The End of American Capitalism?, Washington Post (10 October 2008), available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/09/AR2008100903425_pf.html; Finfacts Team, IMF says Europe is facing worst financial crisis in decades; European states struggling to raise money in bond markets, Finfacts (22 October 2008), available at: http://www.finfacts.com/irishfinancenews/article_1015045.shtml; G Rayner, UK facing worst financial crisis “in decades”, Daily Telegraph (19 March 2008), available at: http://www.telegraph.co._uk/finance/markets/2786520/UK-facing-worst-financial-crisis-'in-decades'.html.Google Scholar

3 BBC News (note 1).Google Scholar

4 The Bush administration in the US provided an initial US$700bn bail-out to buy up Wall Street's bad debts in return for a stake in the banks while the UK government announced it would make £400bn extra capital available to eight of the UK's largest banks and building societies in return for preference shares in them. These figures have since ballooned both in the US and the UK as banks write down more losses with some on the brink of collapse. The Obama administration has since proposed a further $825 billion ‘stimulus’ package which Congress passed with various amendments. The UK Government on its part provided not only further ‘bail-out’ funds for the banks, but took substantial stakes in notable high street banks such as Lloyds TSB, Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS as well as ‘reinsuring’ all their ‘toxic debts'. Similar steps have been taken by most of the other European and South East Asian countries, including China, which proposed a $585 Billion ‘stimulus package'. The extent of this recession is yet to play itself out as more job losses are announced daily with more companies preparing for bankruptcies.Google Scholar

5 Sonny Nwankwo, Assessing the Marketing Environment in Sub-Saharan Africa: Opportunities and Threats Analysis, 18 Marketing Intelligence and Planning 3, 146 (2000); Sonny Nwankwo and Darlington Richards, Institutional Paradigm and the Management of Transitions: A Sub-Sahara African Perspective, 31 International Journal of Social Economics 1,111–130 (2004).Google Scholar

6 Joseph Stiglitz, Sound Finance and Sustainable Development in Asia, paper delivered at the Asia Development Forum held in Manila, 10–13 March 1998, 10.Google Scholar

7 United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Creating an Enabling Environment for Private Sector Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, UNIDO and The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (2008).Google Scholar

8 David Reed, Structural Adjustment, the Environment, and Sustainable Development (1995).Google Scholar

9 Charles Soludo, In Search of Alternative Analytical and Methodological Framework for an African Economic Development Model, in African Voices on Structural Adjustment, A Companion to our Continent, our Future (Thankida Mkandawire & Charles Soludo eds., 2003).Google Scholar

10 See for instance, Richard Whitley, Divergent Capitalisms: The Social Structuring and Change of Business Systems (1999); Peter Hall and David Soskice, Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage (2001); Bruno Amable, The Diversity of Modern Capitalism (2003).Google Scholar

11 Chris Howell, Varieties of Capitalism: And Then There Was One?, 36 Comparative Politics 102–124 (2003); Peer Zumbansen, Varieties of Capitalism and the Learning Firm: Corporate Governance and Labour in the Context of Contemporary Developments in European and German Company Law, in Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility, 113, 117 (Nina Boeger, Rachel Murray & Charlotte Villiers, eds., 2008).Google Scholar

12 UNIDO (note 7), 8, 10.Google Scholar

13 Reed (note 8); Nwankwo and Richards (note 5) 111–130; Richard Lipsey and Alec Chrystal, Economics (2007).Google Scholar

14 T Ademola Oyejide, Trade Liberalization, Regional Integration, and African Development in the Context of Structural Adjustment, in African Voices on Structural Adjustment, A Companion to our Continent, our Future, 55 (Thankida Mkandawire & Charles Soludo eds., 2003).Google Scholar

15 See, Ronald Mckinnon, Money and Capital in Economic Development (1973). See also, Edward Shaw, Financial Deepening in Economic Development (1973).Google Scholar

16 See, Joseph Stiglitz, Capital-Market Liberalization, Globalization, and the IMF, 20 Oxford Review of Economic Policy (OREP) 1, 5771 (2004); Pradeep Agrawal, Interest Rates and Investment in East Asia: An Empirical Evaluation of Various Financial Liberalisation Hypotheses, 40 Journal of Development Studies 3, 142–173 (2004). See also, Xiaoke Zhang, Financial Market Governance in Developing Countries: Getting Political Underpinnings Right, 22 Journal of Developing Societies 2,169 (2006).Google Scholar

17 Zhang (note 16), 172. See also, Eswar Prasad, Kenneth Rogoff, Shang-Jin Wei, and M Ayan Kose, Effects of Financial Globalization on Developing Countries: Some Empirical Evidence, Mimeograph, International Monetary Fund (2003).Google Scholar

18 O Felix Ayadi and Ladelle Hyman, Financial Liberalisation and Price Rigidity in the Nigerian Banking System 32 Managerial Financial 7, 557 (2006).Google Scholar

19 See Kavaljit Singh, Corporate Accountability: Is Self Regulation the Answer? (2007), available at: http://www.countercurrents.org/singh240407.htm.Google Scholar

20 Peter Muchlinski, Multinational Enterprises and the law 3 (2007).Google Scholar

21 Anderson noted that MNCs rival nation-states as units of economic organisation since a comparison of corporate sales and country gross domestic product shows that of the 100 largest economies in the world, fifty-one are corporations and forty-nine are states. See Michael Anderson, Transnational Corporations and Environmental Damage: Is Tort Law the Answer? 41 Washburn law Journal, 400 (2002). See also, Charlotte Villiers, Corporate Law, Corporate Power and Corporate Social Responsibility, in Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility, 85 (Nina Boeger, Rachel Murray & Charlotte Villiers eds., 2008); Muchlinski (note 20).Google Scholar

22 See Muzaffer Eroglu, Multinational Enterprises and Tort Liabilities: An Interdisciplinary and Comparative Examination 70 (2008). For instance in Nigeria, under the first indigenous Companies Act of 1968, enacted after independence, foreign corporations are required to reincorporate as Nigerian companies before they are allowed to operate in Nigeria. This is still a requirement even under the new Companies and Allied Matters Act, Chapter C20, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, section 54 thereof. See generally Olufemi Amao, Corporate Social Responsibility, Multinational Corporations and the Law in Nigeria: Controlling Multinationals in Host States, 52 Journal of African Law 1, 89 (2008). For a comprehensive treatment of Nigeria's foreign investment regime, see Khrushchev Ekwueme, Nigeria's Principal Investment Laws in the Context of International Law and Practice, 49 Journal of African Law 2,177–206 (2005).Google Scholar

23 Christopher Tugendhat, The Multinationals 31–32 (1971).Google Scholar

24 Stephen Tully, Corporations and International Lawmaking 2 (2007); Eroglu, (note 22), 72.Google Scholar

25 In Wiwa v. Shell, 96 Civ 8386 (KMW) 2002 US Dist. LEXIS 3293 (SDNY 22 February 2002), the central plank of Shell's resistance was that Nigeria was the proper forum as SPDC was a wholly Nigerian company and the acts complained of had more significant connection with Nigeria than the United States.Google Scholar

26 Alison Shinasato, Increasing the Accountability of Transnational Corporations for Environmental Harms: The Petroleum Industry in Nigeria, 4 Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights 1, 186 (2005).Google Scholar

27 Michael Blowfield and Jedrzej Frynas, Setting New Agendas: Critical Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility In The Developing World, 81 International Affairs 3, 500501 (2005). See also, Peter Utting and Kate Ives, The Politics of Corporate Social Responsibility and the Oil Industry, 2 Stair 1,11 (2006).Google Scholar

28 Archie Carroll, Corporate Social Responsibility: Evolution of a Definitional Construct, 38 Business and Society 271 (1999).Google Scholar

29 Muchlinski, (note 20), 90–114.Google Scholar

30 For instance the ICJ decision in the South West African Cases (Ethiopia & Liberia v. South Africa), ICJ Reports 1966, para. 49; Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Co. Case (Belgium v. Spain), ICJ Reports 1970, 3, 37.Google Scholar

31 See Climate Change Convention, which had considerable input from NGOs and other non-state actors. Even corporations and other corporate entities have contractual relationships with international organisations, including the UN for distribution of humanitarian aid and other international assistance. Both Agenda 21, Report on UN Conference on Environment and Development, UN Doc. A/CONF.151/26, Vol.2, Ch.27.1 & 27.6 (1992) which enjoins inter-governmental institutions to be included “at all levels from policymaking and decision-making to implementation”, and Art.3(7) of the Aarhus Convention, 38 ILM 517 (1999) enjoins greater governmental efforts to increase access to information, public participation in decision-making as well as provide access to justice in the context of international environmental decision making.Google Scholar

32 Ans Kolk and Rob van Tuder, Setting New Global Rules? TNCs and Codes of Conduct, 14 Transnational Corporations 3, 45 (2005).Google Scholar

33 Kathleen Getz, International Codes of Conduct: An Analysis of Ethical Reasoning, 11 Journal of Business Ethics, 915–920 (1990).Google Scholar

34 Kolk and van Tulder, (note 32).Google Scholar

35 International Labour Organization (ILO) Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, Geneva, International Labour Office, (2001), available at: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/multi/download/english.pdf.Google Scholar

36 Surya Deva, Human Rights Violations by Multinational Corporations and International Law: Where from Here?, 19 Connecticut Journal of International law 1–57 (2003).Google Scholar

37 ILO (note 35).Google Scholar

38 C Croxson, The 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work: Promoting Labour Reforms Through the ILO as an Alternative to Imposing Coercive Trade Sanctions, 17 Dick Journal of International Law 469, 481 (1999).Google Scholar

39 Phillip Rudolph, Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises, in Corporate Social Responsibility: The Corporate Governance of the 21st Century, 219 (Ramon Mullerat ed., 2005).Google Scholar

41 Part 1, Section 1, Article 2 of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (2000), available at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/56/36/1922428.pdf.Google Scholar

42 Ran Goel, Guide To Instruments Of Corporate Responsibility: An Overview of 16 Key Tools for Labour Fund Trustees (2005), available at: http://www.pensionsatwork.ca/english/pdfs/conference_2005/goel_guide_to_instruments.pdf.Google Scholar

43 Summary Critique of Standards Relevant to Extractive Industries, a report prepared by the Canadian Civil Society for the National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Extractive Sector in Developing Countries, available at: http://www.dd-rd.ca/site/_PDF/other/compendium-final-06-09.pdf.Google Scholar

44 See, supra, note 41.Google Scholar

45 World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Issue Management Tool, Accountability (2004), available at: http://www.wbcsd.org/web/publications/accountability-codes.pdf.Google Scholar

46 OECD Guidelines (note 41), Part 1, Section 1, Article 10. See also Part 2 titled Implementation Procedures of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises'.Google Scholar

47 Friends of the Earth (England, Wales and Northern Ireland), A History of Attempts to Regulate the Activities of Transnational Corporations: What Lessons Can Be Learned?, Discussion Paper for Working Group II of the ‘Toward a Progressive International Economy’ Conference, Washington, DC November 1998. Ethical Corporation, ‘By Invitation: The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises: A modest proposal', 07 August 2007, available at: http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=5299.Google Scholar

48 In UK, DRC and Canadian NGOs v. Anvil Mining (06/05), Anvil was alleged to have provided logistical help to Congolese military in massacre in Kilwa that left 100 killed. Avril denied the allegations. The Canadian NCP rejected the case claiming its role was to mediate and was unable to investigate into the activities of the company.Google Scholar

49 In Swedish NGOs v. Sandvik (06/05), Sandvik was alleged to have supplied gold mining equipment to Ashanti Goldfields Company, which violated human rights and environment. The Swedish NCP conducted fact-finding mission but refused to meet with Ghanaian NGOs.Google Scholar

50 The Guidelines does not provide a timelines for NCPs to evaluate cases. For instance, RAID v. Anglo American a case involving the unfair resettlement related to mining in Zambia filed 02/02 is still pending.Google Scholar

51 In Belgian & UK NGOs v. Cogecom (11/04), Cogecom was alleged to have financed rebel movements. The Belgian NCP rejected the case because there were on-going legal proceedings.Google Scholar

52 See, supra, note 47.Google Scholar

53 ‘OECD Watch Regional Roundtable: Toward a Model European National Contact Point', Dialogue with Eastern European NCPs and stakeholders Bratislava, Slovakia, 24 May(2007), available at: http://www.fes.sk/files/2007_National%20contact%20points.ppt.Google Scholar

54 United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations (UNCC), Work by the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations in Services and Transborder Data Flows iv (1990).Google Scholar

55 Friends of the Earth (FOE) England, Wales and Northern Ireland, A History of Attempts to Regulate the Activities of Transnational Corporations: What Lessons Can Be Learned? (1998), available at: http://www.corporate-accountability.org/docs/FoE-US-paper-history_TNC-Regulation.doc.Google Scholar

56 Jennifer Clapp, Transnational Corporations and Global Environmental Governance, available at: www.trentu.ca/tipec/3clapp4.pdf.Google Scholar

57 Amnesty International, The UN Human Rights Norms For Business: Towards Legal Accountability 8–11 (2004).Google Scholar

58 Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/12/Rev.2 (2003), available at: http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/links/norms-Aug2003.html.Google Scholar

60 Amnesty International (note 57), 5.Google Scholar

61 Amnesty International (note 57), 12.Google Scholar

63 Human Rights Watch, The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria's Oil Producing Communities (1999).Google Scholar

64 See generally, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Gas Flaring in Nigeria: A Human Rights, Environmental and Economic Monstrosity (2005).Google Scholar

65 In other cases most have been executed as a result of their environmental and human rights activities. See Patrick Okonmah, Judicial Murder of Human Rights and Environmental Activities in the Niger Delta and its Implications for the Enjoyment of Human Rights in Nigeria, 7 Tilburg Foreign Law Review 4, 393428 (1998).Google Scholar

66 For an exhaustive discussion of relevant laws see, Adewole Adedeji and Rhuks Ako, Legal Response to the Control and Management of Oil Pollution in Nigeria, in Current Perspectives in Law, Justice and Development, 915–949 (Adedotun Onibokun and Ademola Popoola eds., (2007); Engobo Emeseh, The Impact of the Oil Industry on Water in Nigeria: How Adequate is the Law and its Enforcement?, 1 Benin Journal of Public law 88–112 (2003); and, Rhuks Ako, Adewole Adedeji, and Sunday Coker, Resolving Legislative Lapses through Contemporary Environmental protection Paradigms: A Case Study of Nigeria's Niger Delta Region, 47 The Indian Journal of International Law, 432–450 (2007).Google Scholar

67 Chapter P10 of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.Google Scholar

68 Section 7 of the Nigerian Minerals Oil (Safety) Regulations.Google Scholar

69 The FEPA Act was novel because it created explicit national environmental standards that regulated the oil industry for the first time, but these standards did not apply directly to the oil industry. The FEPA Act has now been replaced by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (Establishment) Act, 2007. A new Agency, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (Establishment) Act, 2006 has now been created specifically for the oil industry. Whether or not this arrangement will improve matters is yet to be seen as the Agency is not only new, but its impact is yet to be felt by victims of oil industry pollution in the Nigerian Delta.Google Scholar

70 Chapter L5, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.Google Scholar

71 Chapter A25, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.Google Scholar

72 For a discussion on the peculiar impacts of the Land Use Act on the Niger Delta region, refer to R Ako, Nigeria's Land Use Act: An Anti-Thesis to Environmental Justice, 53 Journal of African law 2, 289304 (2009).Google Scholar

73 See, supra, note 61.Google Scholar

74 Gbemre v. Shell, Suit No. FHC/B/C/153/05 delivered on 14 November, 2005.Google Scholar

75 Oronto Douglas v. Shell Petroleum Development Company Ltd. and Ors, Federal High Court of Lagos Suit no. FHC/L/CS/573/96, which ruling was delivered on the 17th of February 1997.Google Scholar

76 Engobo Emeseh, The Limitations of Law in Promoting Synergy between Environment and Development Policies in Developing Countries: A Case Study of the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria 24 Journal of Energy and Natural Resources law 4, 574606 (2006).Google Scholar

77 Wiwa v. Shell, supra, note 25. Bowoto v. Chevron F. Supp. 2d 1229 (N.D. Cal. 2004).Google Scholar

78 Abigail Walton, Mining a Sacred Land, 2 Human Rights Dialogue 11, 2425 (2004).Google Scholar

79 Contract of Work Dated 7 April 1967 Between Indonesia and Freeport Indonesia, Incorporated: Decision of the Cabinet Presidium, No. 82/E/KEP/4/1967 (Jakarta: Direktorat Pembinaan Pengusahaan Pertambangan, 1967).Google Scholar

80 Article 18 (8) of the Contract of Work between the Government of the Republik of Indonesia and PT. Freeport Indonesia Company (1991).Google Scholar

82 Abigail Abrash, Development Aggression: Observations on Human Rights Conditions in the PT Freeport Indonesia Contract of Work Areas with Recommendations’ (2002), available at: http://westpapuaaction.buz.org/Development-Aggression.htm#_ftnref7.Google Scholar

83 Abigail Abrash, Mining a Sacred Land, 2 Human Rights Dialogue 11, 24 (2004).Google Scholar

84 969 F. Supp. 362 (E.D.La. 1997); No. 96-1474 (E.D. La. filed Apr. 29, 1996).Google Scholar

85 For an in-depth analysis of the Bhopal Gas Leak, see generally Engobo Emeseh, Challenges to Enforcement of Criminal Liability for Environmental Damage in Developing Countries with Particular Reference to the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster, 1 Oil, Gas and Energy Law Intelligence 5,1–28 (2003).Google Scholar

86 The Indian Penal Code, Act No.45, 1860.Google Scholar

87 See, Tetsuya Morimoto, Growing Industrialisation and our Damaged Planet: The Extraterritorial Application of Developed Countries’ Domestic Environmental Laws to Transnational Corporations Abroad, 1 Utrecht Law Review 2, 139 (2005).Google Scholar

88 Emeseh, (note 76), 1–28.Google Scholar

89 Emeseh, (note 76), 21–23.Google Scholar

90 See, Indian Environmental Portal, Knowledge for Change, available at: http://www.indianenvironmentalportal.org.in/taxonomy/item/2544.Google Scholar

91 Hari M Osofsky, Environmental Rights Enforcement in U.S. Courts, 2 Human Rights Dialogue 11, 30 (2004).Google Scholar

92 28 U.S.C. § 1350 (1999).Google Scholar

93 For instance, in International Labour Rights Education & Research Fund v. Bush 954 F.2d 745, 747748 (D.C. Cir. 1992) the plaintiffs sought an injunction against the [then] President Bush to enforce the labour provisions of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). The court denied jurisdiction, holding that the Court of International Trade was the proper forum to address the issues raised.Google Scholar

94 Kadic v. Karadzic 70 F. 3d 232, 236237 (2d Cir. 1995).Google Scholar

95 Filartiga v Pena-Irala 630 F.2d 876 (2d Cir. 1980). See also, Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. 226 F.3d 88 (2d Cir. 2000). Where the defendant is foreign, the courts exercise their discretion to assume jurisdiction on a case-by-case basis subject to some general guidelines, including whether the defendant does business in the forum state, has otherwise consented to jurisdiction, or has visited the state. See generally, Richard Herz, Litigating Environmental Abuses under the Alien Tort Claims Act: A Practical Assessment, 40 Virginia Journal of International law 566 (2000). See also, Lisa Lambert, At the Crossroads of Environmental and Human Rights Standards: Aguinda v. Texaco, Inc. Using the Alien Tort Claims Act to Hold Multinational Corporate Violators of International Laws Accountable in US Courts, 10 Journal Transnational Law and Policy 118 (2000). Where both parties are aliens but the ‘law of nations’ has allegedly been violated, the courts will uphold ATCA jurisdiction. For instance, in Filartiga v. Pena-Irala 630 F.2d 876 (2d Cir. 1980), though both parties were aliens, the alleged acts of torture that led to the death of the plaintiff's child was held to be deliberate torture perpetrated under colour of official authority which violated universally accepted norms of the international law of human rights, regardless of the nationality of the parties.Google Scholar

96 Roque Romero, Using the US Alien Tort Claims Act for Environmental Torts: The Problem of Definability of the Right to a Healthy Environment, 16 CEPMLP Internet Journal 7 (2005), available at: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cepmlp/journal/html/Vol16/Vol16_7.pdf. See also, A Bernstein, Conjoining International Human Rights Law with Enterprise Liability for Accidents, 40 Washburn Law Journal 397 (2001), available at: http://washburnlaw.edu/wlj/40-3/articles/bern.pdf.Google Scholar

97 Anita Bernstein (note 96), 397. For example, in Adra v. Clift, 195 F. Supp. 857 (D. Md 1961) the court decided that wrongful withholding of custody of a child constituted an actionable tort; while in Nguyen Da Yen v. Kissinger, 528 F.2d 1194 (9th Cir. 1975) the court noted that injuries that accrued to alleged illegal evacuation of children from Vietnam by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service could be addressed pursuant to the ATCA.Google Scholar

98 226 F. 3d 88, 104 n. 10 (2d Cir 2000).Google Scholar

99 Oxford Dictionary of Law, 3rd Edition, 207–208 (E Martin ed., 2002).Google Scholar

100 Alvarez-Machain v. United States, 331 F.3d 604, 613 (9th Cir. 2003); John Doe v. Unocal Corp, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 19263 (9th Cir. 2002), citing Papa v. United States, 281 F.3d 1004,1013 (9th Cir. 2002).Google Scholar

101 Lucien Dhooge, The Alien Torts Claims Act and the Modern Transnational Enterprise: Deconstructing the Mythology of Judicial Activism, 35 Georgetown Journal of International Law 48, 7071 (2003). See, Estate of Rodriquez v. Drummond Co., 256 F. Supp. 2d 1250, 1262–1264 (N.D. Ala. 2003); Sarei v. Rio Tinto plc 221 F. Supp 2dat 1160,1162; and Abdullahi v. Pfizer, Inc., No. 01 Civ 8118, 2002 US Dist. LEXIS 17436 (SDNY Sept 16, 2002).Google Scholar

102 See generally, Beenal v. Freeport McMoran Inc., 197 F.3d 161, 164 (5th Cir. 1999).Google Scholar

103 504 US 655 (1992).Google Scholar

104 Centre for Constitutional Rights, Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain (amicus), available at: http://ccr_justice.org/ourcases/past-cases/sosa-v.-alvarez-machain-(amicus).Google Scholar

105 For instance in the Wiwa case, the plaintiffs alleged through their survivors that they had been imprisoned, tortured and executed by the Nigerian government for their opposition to the defendants’ oil exploration activities. They claimed that these human rights violations were instigated, orchestrated, planned, and facilitated by Shell Nigeria under the direction of the defendants. Shell, the defendant in the case, successfully challenged the validity of the plaintiffs’ summary execution, forced exile and right to life, liberty and personal assembly claims. The court allowed the claims for aiding and abetting liability in general, as well as the claims for crimes against humanity, torture and prolonged arbitrary detention. Both the plaintiffs and defendants petitioned the Second Circuit for appeal. See generally, Roque Romero, Using the US Alien Tort Claims Act for Environmental Torts: The Problem of Definability of the Right to a Healthy Environment, (2005), available at: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cepmlp/journal/html/Vol16/Vol16_7.pdf.Google Scholar

106 Lambert (note 95), 128.Google Scholar

107 B Stephens, Upsetting Checks and Balances: The Bush Administration's Efforts to Limit Human Rights Litigation, 17 Harvard Human Rights Journal 175 (2004). See also, Centre for Constitutional Rights, Bowoto v. Chevron, available at: http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/bowoto-v.-chevron.Google Scholar

108 U.S. court clears Chevron of charges in Nigeria clash, The Guardian Newspapers (03 December 2008). See also, Constance Ikokwu, Shell to Face Trial in US over Saro-Wiwa, ThisDay Newspapers (10 September, 2008). For a timeline on these cases, generally, Centre for Constitutional Rights, Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, Wiwa v. Anderson and Wiwa v. Shell Petroleum Development Company, available at: http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/wiwa-v.-royal-dutch-petroleum%2C-wiwa-v.-anderson-and-wiwa-v.-shell-petroleum-d. Also, Centre for Constitutional Rights, Bowoto v. Chevron, available at: http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/bowoto-v.-chevron.Google Scholar

109 For instance, the plaintiffs in the Wiwa case are represented by New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Washington, D.C.-based EarthRights International, Seattle University law professor Julie Shapiro, and Paul Hoffman.Google Scholar

110 See generally, Dani Rodrik, Who Needs Capital Account Convertibility?, in Should The IMF Pursue Capital-Account Convertibility? Princeton Essays in International Finance No. 207, 5565 (Stanley Fischer et al eds., (1998); Joseph Stiglitz, Capital Market Liberalisation and Exchange Rates Regimes: Risk without Reward, 579 The Annals of the American Academy 219- 248 (2002); Ajit Singh, ‘Capital Account Liberalization, free Long-Term Capital Flows, Financial Crises and Economic Development’ ESRC Centre for Business Research –Working Paper, 245, ESRC Centre for Business Research (2002). See also, Andrew Charlton and Joseph Stiglitz, ‘Capital Market Liberalisation and Poverty’ (2004) Initiative for Policy Dialogue Working Paper 118; Pierre-Richard Agénor, Does Globalisation Hurt the Poor, 1 International Economics and Economic Policy 1–31 (2004) and Xiaoke Zhang, Financial Market Governance in Developing Countries: Getting Political Underpinnings Right, 22 Journal of Developing Societies 2, 175 (2006).Google Scholar

111 Joseph Stiglitz, Capital-Market Liberalisation, Globalisation, and the IMF, 20 Oxford Review of Economic Policy 1, 5771 (2004).Google Scholar

112 Joseph Stiglitz, ‘Towards A New Global Economic Compact: Principles for Addressing the Current Global Crisis and Beyond', speech delivered to the United Nations General Assembly convened Causes and Solutions to the Global Financial Crisis meeting, 30 October, 2008, available at: http://www.un.org/ga/president/63/interactive/gfc/joseph_p.pdf. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, A global solution is needed for financial crisis, The Telegraph (08 October 2008), available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3562686/A-global-solution-is-needed-for-financial-crisis.html.Google Scholar

113 Stiglitz (note 112).Google Scholar

114 Faiola (note 2). Also, Stiglitz (note 112) and Global plan for recovery and reform (02/04/2009), G20 Summit (The London Summit 2009), available at: http://www.londonsummit.gov.uk/resources/en/news/15766232/communique-020409.Google Scholar

115 ‘Global plan for recovery and reform (note 114).Google Scholar

116 Jernej Cernic, Corporate Responsibility for Human Rights: A Critical Analysis of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, 4 Hanse law Review 1, 71 (2008).Google Scholar

117 David Mepham, Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility - Rethinking the International Business Agenda, 3.2 Progressive Politics 74–75 (2004). See also, Amy. Sinden, Power and Responsibility: Why Human Rights Should Address Corporate Environmental Wrongs, in The New Corporate Accountability: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law, 501–503 (Doreen McBarnet et al eds., 2007).Google Scholar

118 See generally, Christian Aid, Behind the Mask: The Real Face of Corporate Social Responsibility, (2004). See also, Cernic (note 116), 99. It is important to note in this regards that the London G20 Summit made particular reference to the FSF's tough new principles on the corporate social responsibility of all firms, Note particularly, London Summit Communiqué (note 114), Article 14.Google Scholar

119 Milton Friedman, The social responsibility of business to increase its profits, The New York Times Magazine (13 September 1970), available at: http://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/libertarians/issues/friedman-soc-resp-business.html. See also, Radu Mares, The Dynamics of Corporate Social Responsibilities 1 (2008). The Good Company – A Sceptical Look at Corporate Social Responsibility, The Economist (22 January 2005).Google Scholar

120 Susan Margaret Hart, Self-regulation, Corporate Social Responsibility, and the Business Case: Do they Work in Achieving Workplace Equality and Safety?, Journal of Business Ethics (2009).Google Scholar

121 Refer to section D above where the case studies reveal the arduous task involved in local communities obtaining justice against wrongs perceived to be done by, or with, the involvement of multinationals corporations.Google Scholar

122 Surya Deva, Human Rights Violations by Multinational Corporations and International Law: Where from Here?, 19 Connecticut Journal of International Law 4 (2003).Google Scholar

123 Rhys Jenkins, Globalization, Corporate Social Responsibility and Poverty, 81 International Affairs 3, 527528 (2005).Google Scholar

124 Adeola Yusuf, Unrest in Niger Delta pushes oil price above$73, Daily Independent Newspaper (01 July, 2009).Google Scholar

125 Gas Flaring in Nigeria (note 64), 13.Google Scholar

126 George Akpan, Environmental and Human Rights Problems in Natural Resources Development - Implications for Investment in Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sectors, 6 CEPMLP Internet Journal 6-5a (2000), available at: www.dundee.ac.uk/cepmlp/journal/html/vol6/article6-5a.html.Google Scholar

127 Muchlinski (note 20), 3; Villers, Corporate Law, Corporate Power and Corporate Social Responsibility (note 21); and, Eroglu (note 22).Google Scholar

128 Ironically, some of these bailed-out companies have, in the face of public and government outcry, paid out huge bonuses to their executives without any legal repercussions.Google Scholar

129 Halina Ward, Governing Multinationals: The Role of Foreign Direct Liability, The Royal Institute of International Affairs Energy and Environment Programme Briefing Paper New Series No. 18,1 (2001).Google Scholar

130 Halina Ward, Corporate Social Responsibility in Law and Policy, in Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility, (Nina Boeger, Rachel Murray & Charlotte Villiers eds., 2008); Freeman Edward, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (1984); Thomas Donaldson and Lee Preston, The Stakeholder Theory of the Modern Corporation: Concepts, Evidence and Implications, 20 Academy of Management Review 65–91 (1995).Google Scholar

131 Adolfe Berle, Corporate Powers as Powers in Trust, 44 Havard law Review 1049–1074 (1931). See also, Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom 133 (1962).Google Scholar

132 EROGLU (note 22), 247–264.Google Scholar

133 Amnesty International, The UN Human Rights Norms For Business: Towards Legal Accountability 6–7 (2004).Google Scholar

134 Refer to section D above where the inabilities of local regulations to hold MNCs liable were highlighted.Google Scholar