IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v145y2017i3d10.1007_s10551-015-2889-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond Guilty Verdicts: Human Rights Litigation and its Impact on Corporations’ Human Rights Policies

Author

Listed:
  • Judith Schrempf-Stirling

    (University of Richmond)

  • Florian Wettstein

    (University of St. Gallen)

Abstract

During the last years, there has been an increasing discussion on the role of business in human rights violations and an increase in human rights litigation against companies. The result of human rights litigation has been rather disillusioning because no corporation has been found guilty and most cases have been dismissed. We argue that it may nevertheless be a useful instrument for the advancement of the business and human rights agenda. We examine the determinants of successful human rights litigation in terms of judicial, educational, and regulatory effects. This article reviews more than 40 corporate foreign direct liability cases and their effects on corporate human rights policies and conduct. The review shows that most corporations adjusted their human rights policies and adopted additional measures to cope with human rights issues during or shortly after the legal proceedings. Opening legal channels for human rights litigation may be one way for governments to incentivize firms to respect human rights. These findings have implications for the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as well as on our interpretation of the most recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kiobel v. Shell.

Suggested Citation

  • Judith Schrempf-Stirling & Florian Wettstein, 2017. "Beyond Guilty Verdicts: Human Rights Litigation and its Impact on Corporations’ Human Rights Policies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(3), pages 545-562, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:145:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-015-2889-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2889-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-015-2889-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-015-2889-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthew Murphy & Jordi Vives, 2013. "Perceptions of Justice and the Human Rights Protect, Respect, and Remedy Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(4), pages 781-797, September.
    2. Björn Fasterling & Geert Demuijnck, 2013. "Human Rights in the Void? Due Diligence in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(4), pages 799-814, September.
    3. Robert McCorquodale, 2009. "Corporate Social Responsibility and International Human Rights Law," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 385-400, August.
    4. Justine Nolan & Luke Taylor, 2009. "Corporate Responsibility for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Rights in Search of a Remedy?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 433-451, August.
    5. Aurora Voiculescu, 2009. "Human Rights and the New Corporate Accountability: Learning from Recent Developments in Corporate Criminal Liability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 419-432, August.
    6. Kobrin, Stephen J., 2009. "Private Political Authority and Public Responsibility: Transnational Politics, Transnational Firms, and Human Rights," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 349-374, July.
    7. Wettstein, Florian, 2012. "CSR and the Debate on Business and Human Rights: Bridging the Great Divide," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 739-770, October.
    8. Muchlinski, Peter, 2012. "Implementing the New UN Corporate Human Rights Framework: Implications for Corporate Law, Governance, and Regulation," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 145-177, January.
    9. Ruggie, John Gerard, 2007. "Business and Human Rights: The Evolving International Agenda," Working Paper Series rwp07-029, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    10. Susan Ariel Aaronson & Ian Higham, 2013. "‘Re-righting business’: John Ruggie and the struggle to develop international human rights standards for transnational firms," Working Papers 2013-5, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    11. Michael W. Toffel, 2008. "Coerced Confessions: Self-Policing in the Shadow of the Regulator," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 24(1), pages 45-71, May.
    12. Judith Schrempf-Stirling, 2014. "Roche’s Clinical Trials with Organs from Prisoners: Does Profit Trump Morals?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(2), pages 315-328, May.
    13. McDonnell, Mary-Hunter & King, Brayden & Soule, Sarah A., 2015. "A Dynamic Process Model of Private Politics: Activist Targeting and Corporate Receptivity to Social Challenges," Research Papers 3319, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    14. Mena, Sébastien & Palazzo, Guido, 2012. "Input and Output Legitimacy of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 527-556, July.
    15. Florian Wettstein, 2010. "The Duty to Protect: Corporate Complicity, Political Responsibility, and Human Rights Advocacy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 96(1), pages 33-47, September.
    16. Erin M. Reid & Michael W. Toffel, 2009. "Responding to public and private politics: corporate disclosure of climate change strategies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(11), pages 1157-1178, November.
    17. Nadia Bernaz, 2013. "Enhancing Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Violations: Is Extraterritoriality the Magic Potion?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(3), pages 493-511, October.
    18. Erin Marie Reid & Michael W. Toffel, 2008. "Responding to Public and Private Politics: Corporate Disclosure of Climate Change Strategies," Harvard Business School Working Papers 09-019, Harvard Business School, revised Jun 2009.
    19. George Brenkert, 2009. "Google, Human Rights, and Moral Compromise," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(4), pages 453-478, April.
    20. L·szlÛ PÛlos & Michael T. Hannan, 2002. "Foundations of a theory of social forms," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(1), pages 85-115, February.
    21. Campbell, Tom, 2006. "A Human Rights Approach to Developing Voluntary Codes of Conduct for Multinational Corporations," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(2), pages 255-269, April.
    22. Wettstein, Florian, 2012. "Silence as Complicity: Elements of a Corporate Duty to Speak Out Against the Violation of Human Rights," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 37-61, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giuliani, Elisa, 2018. "Regulating global capitalism amid rampant corporate wrongdoing—Reply to “Three frames for innovation policy”," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(9), pages 1577-1582.
    2. Maximilian J. L. Schormair & Lara M. Gerlach, 2020. "Corporate Remediation of Human Rights Violations: A Restorative Justice Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 475-493, December.
    3. Prabhir Vishnu Poruthiyil, 2021. "Big Business and Fascism: A Dangerous Collusion," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 121-135, January.
    4. Elisa GIULIANI, 2020. "Putting human rights into regional growth agendas: Where we stand and where we ought to go," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2042, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2020.
    5. Luciano Ciravegna & Federica Nieri, 2022. "Business and Human Rights: A Configurational View of the Antecedents of Human Rights Infringements by Emerging Market Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 431-450, August.
    6. M. Tina Dacin & Jeffrey S. Harrison & David Hess & Sheila Killian & Julia Roloff, 2022. "Business Versus Ethics? Thoughts on the Future of Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(3), pages 863-877, October.
    7. Marisa McVey & John Ferguson & François-Régis Puyou, 2023. "“Traduttore, Traditore?” Translating Human Rights into the Corporate Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 573-596, January.
    8. Lopatta, Kerstin & Tideman, Sebastian A. & Scheil, Carolin & Makarem, Naser, 2023. "The current state of corporate human rights disclosure of the global top 500 business enterprises: Measurement and determinants," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    9. Mallika Tamvada, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility and accountability: a new theoretical foundation for regulating CSR," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-14, December.
    10. Wettstein, Florian & Giuliani, Elisa & Santangelo, Grazia D. & Stahl, Günter K., 2019. "International business and human rights: A research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 54-65.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Judith Schrempf-Stirling, 2018. "State Power: Rethinking the Role of the State in Political Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 1-14, June.
    2. Onyeka K. Osuji & Ugochukwu L. Obibuaku, 2016. "Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility: Competing or Complementary Approaches to Poverty Reduction and Socioeconomic Rights?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 329-347, June.
    3. Matthew Murphy & Jordi Vives, 2013. "Perceptions of Justice and the Human Rights Protect, Respect, and Remedy Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(4), pages 781-797, September.
    4. Björn Fasterling & Geert Demuijnck, 2013. "Human Rights in the Void? Due Diligence in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(4), pages 799-814, September.
    5. Wettstein, Florian & Giuliani, Elisa & Santangelo, Grazia D. & Stahl, Günter K., 2019. "International business and human rights: A research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 54-65.
    6. Tricia D. Olsen & Laura Bernal-Bermúdez, 2024. "Uncovering Economic Complicity: Explaining State-Led Human Rights Abuses in the Corporate Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 35-54, January.
    7. Davide Fiaschi & Elisa Giuliani, 2011. "The impact of business on society: exploring CRS adoption and alleged human rights abuses by large corporations," LEM Papers Series 2011/13, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    8. Maximilian J. L. Schormair & Lara M. Gerlach, 2020. "Corporate Remediation of Human Rights Violations: A Restorative Justice Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 475-493, December.
    9. Scherer, Andreas, 2013. "Legitimacy Strategies in a Globalized World: Organizing for Complex and Heterogeneous Environments," Papers 566, World Trade Institute.
    10. Obara, Louise J. & Peattie, Ken, 2018. "Bridging the great divide? Making sense of the human rights-CSR relationship in UK multinational companies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 781-793.
    11. Ana Čertanec, 2019. "The Connection between Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Respect for Human Rights," DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, European Association Comenius - EACO, issue 2, pages 103-127, June.
    12. Caroline Flammer & Michael W. Toffel & Kala Viswanathan, 2021. "Shareholder activism and firms' voluntary disclosure of climate change risks," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(10), pages 1850-1879, October.
    13. Elisa Giuliani, 2016. "Human Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries’ Industrial Clusters," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 39-54, January.
    14. Rodolphe Durand & Panayiotis (Panikos) Georgallis, 2018. "Differential Firm Commitment to Industries Supported by Social Movement Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(1), pages 154-171, February.
    15. Franck Aggeri & Morgane Le Breton, 2016. "The regulation of transparency in the field of CSR," Post-Print halshs-01368029, HAL.
    16. Karin Buhmann, 2016. "Public Regulators and CSR: The ‘Social Licence to Operate’ in Recent United Nations Instruments on Business and Human Rights and the Juridification of CSR," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(4), pages 699-714, July.
    17. Chonnikarn Fern Jira & Michael W. Toffel, 2011. "Engaging Supply Chains in Climate Change," Harvard Business School Working Papers 12-026, Harvard Business School, revised Oct 2012.
    18. Jodi L. Short, 2013. "Self-Regulation in the Regulatory Void," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 649(1), pages 22-34, September.
    19. Chonnikarn (Fern) Jira & Michael W. Toffel, 2013. "Engaging Supply Chains in Climate Change," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 15(4), pages 559-577, October.
    20. Sébastien Mena & Daniel Waeger, 2014. "Activism for Corporate Responsibility: Conceptualizing Private Regulation Opportunity Structures," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(7), pages 1091-1117, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:145:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-015-2889-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.