MacLeod, Sorcha --- "The United Nations, Human Rights and Transnational Corporations: Challenging the International Legal Order" [2008] ELECD 289; in Boeger, Nina; Murray, Rachel; Villiers, Charlotte (eds), "Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility

Editor(s): Boeger, Nina; Murray, Rachel; Villiers, Charlotte

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847205612

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: The United Nations, Human Rights and Transnational Corporations: Challenging the International Legal Order

Author(s): MacLeod, Sorcha

Number of pages: 21

Extract:

4. The United Nations, human rights and
transnational corporations:
challenging the international legal order
Sorcha MacLeod

To change international social reality, we have to break the mould in which that
reality has been formed.1



INTRODUCTION
What is the place of Transnational Corporations (TNCs) in international law?
There is no doubt that some TNCs exert substantial informal power at the
international level while lacking corresponding duties. Indeed, it is often said
that some TNCs wield greater economic power than many developing and
industrialized states.2 Moreover, TNCs can enjoy rights, such as the right to
property, under international law in a similar way to individuals.3 Under tradi-
tional conceptions of international law, however, only states are players on the
international stage: international law is the law of states and states alone are
subjects of international law.4 TNCs, therefore, exert their substantial power at
the international level without being subject to corresponding duties in inter-
national law.
In this respect, the position of TNCs may be contrasted with that of other
non-state entities operating on the international plane. Obvious comparators
include Inter-Governmental Organizations (IGOs) which wield varying levels
of power and influence and may, as a consequence of international legal
personality, have rights and duties under international law. Key examples are
the WTO and the EU.5 Individuals too, now have duties under international
criminal law, as well as human rights.6 The position of IGOs and individuals
in international law suggests that there is no principled ...