Bridging governance gaps with extraterritorial human rights obligations: Accessing home State courts to end childhood obesity

This chapter argues that legal and normative efforts to end obesity must go beyond a domestic or territorial approach to corporate accountability and address the present challenges to effective accountability in a transnational context. It draws on recent work in the field of transnational or extraterritorial human rights obligations (ETOs). Ending childhood obesity requires an extraterritorial perspective on law and policy. The discussion focuses on transnational civil liability of corporations in the courts of their home State for harms committed in another State (the host State). The chapter first presents a hypothetical case of transnational litigation for obesity-related harm to provide the necessary context and elaborates on the importance of access to home State courts. The substance and relevance of ETOs are then addressed and the existing obstacles to effective access to home State courts are canvassed. We then asses the application of ETOs as a means for overcoming these obstacles. Finally, the conclusion extrapolates on the contribution ETOs make to the broader project of global health governance.