Corporate Accountability: Can Multinational Oil Companies Be Sued For Violation Of Human Rights And Environmental Degradation
- IJLLR Journal
- Jul 6
- 1 min read
Maniratno Chattopadhyay, Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University
Yadavalli Venkata Krishna, Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University
ABSTRACT
There has been several traditional discussions in the sphere of international law which stated that international law has always been a “state centric” system in which only the sovereign actors were regarded as the primary subject matters who had binding and obligatory duties, under this concepts of framework the human rights became a type of “vertical” which meant that the sovereign states became accountable for protection of individuals against any type of abuse from third parties. However after the entry of the well flourished MNOCs [Multinational oil firms] into the system has shown a huge gap of retrospective accountability which had led to severe allegations of human rights is violation displacement of several communication and environment degradation .While the foundational treaties like International covenant on civil and political rights [ICCPR] and Universal declaration of human rights [UDHR] define the universal standards and norms, but in reality they don’t actually provide direct enforcing tools for these non-state elements like MNOCs. This article discusses the evolving legal environmental framework regarding the accountability of these MNOCs under international law focusing on several important cases. This article also regardless of procedural hurdles and obstacles, oil companies can be still liable and even sued for violation of human rights.
Keywords: Corporate accountability, Oil companies, Human rights violation, International law.
