Transnational corporations (TNCs) are powerful economic and even political actors that operate across the globe in every imaginable industry including oil and mining, textiles, finance, technology, and even private military and security forces and prisons. This course focuses on the ways that TNCs (through their employees, contractors, and affiliates) commit physical, financial, and environmental harm against natural persons (particularly in developing countries) and how the law attempts to prevent and respond to that harm. We trace the law around TNCs from its colonial roots through the industrial revolution and into the contemporary era of globalization. We cover sources of domestic and international law that touch on TNCs with a view to sustainable solutions around, for instance, modern slavery, forced labour, child labour, Indigenous property rights, natural resource contamination, and climate change.
The seminar will begin with an introduction to corporate theory. Students will then explore some of the key issues in the debate. For example, whether transnational corporations can properly be included under the international law of state responsibility; mechanisms for self-regulation (e.g. voluntary corporate codes of conduct); the utility of the U.S. Alien Tort Statute and recent Canadian litigation; the advantages and disadvantages of U.N. initiatives (e.g. the work of the former U.N. Special Representative on Business and Human Rights); and the relevance of domestic corporate and securities law mechanisms (e.g. shareholder proposals and social disclosure).
Method of Evaluation: Final project or research paper (80%); Class participation (20%).