Given the increasing number of human rights violations by multinational companies, the call for liability of western companies is growing louder and louder. The question whether such liability already exists de lege lata has so far been answered only fragmentarily. With her paper on the liability of multinational companies for human rights violations, the author fills this gap. The author not only investigates the liability of a parent company, but also examines whether compliance duties of the board of directors comprise a group-wide obligation to prevent human rights violations.
While an explicit implementation of such duty of care has repeatedly been considered, but not yet realised, in Germany, the French legislator has already implemented an obligation to monitor compliance with human rights. Based on this act, the author examines how the liability of multinational companies could be structured de lege ferenda.