Human Rights, Arbitration and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Law of International Trade

Economic globalisation is one of the guiding paradigms of the twenty-first century. The challenge it implies for human rights is fundamental, and key questions have up to now received no satisfying answers. How can human rights protect human dignity when economic globalisation has an adverse impact on local living conditions? How should human rights evolve in response to a global economy in which non-statal actors are decisive forces? The book in general and this article in particular sets out to assess these and other questions to ensure that, as economic globalisation intensifies, human rights take up the central and crucial position that they deserve. Companies may be the key factor of development of a country but, at the same time, they may cause harm by directly abusing human rights, or by colluding with others who violate human rights. Despite this potential to cause significant harm, there are few effective mechanisms at national or international level to prevent corporate human rights abuses or to hold companies to account. Using a multidisciplinary methodology, this essay attempts to explore the avenue of the "contractualisation of human rights", i.e. their passage from classical public international law instruments into transnational contracts and arbitration. Under this angle one can understand some of the efforts developped by international economic organisations to make multinational corporations more socially responsible. An holistic analysis guarantees that the reader gains an understanding of the current situation and of future developments.