Transnational Corporations and Human Rights: Overcoming Barriers to Judicial Remedy

The number of transnational corporations - including parent companies and subsidiaries - has exploded over the last forty years, which has led to a correlating rise of corporate violations of international human rights and environmental laws, either directly or in conjunction with government security forces, local police, state-run businesses, or other businesses. In this work, Gwynne Skinner details the harms of business-related human rights violations on local communities and describes the barriers, both functional and institutional, that victims face in seeking remedies. She concludes by offering solutions to these barriers, with a focus on measures designed to improve judicial remedies, which are the heart of international human rights law but often fail to deliver justice to victims. This work should be read by anyone concerned with the role of corporations in our increasingly globalized society.

Gwynne L. Skinner was Professor of Law and director of the Immigration Clinic at Willamette University. Along with teaching, Skinner also served as a civil rights and international human rights attorney in Seattle, a civil litigator at Dorsey and Whitney LLP, and a federal and state prosecutor. Her cutting-edge human rights litigation included the representation of individuals in immigrant detention, clients before the European Court of Human Rights, and the Palestinian families and parents of Rachel Corrie in the suit against Caterpillar, Inc. An advisor for the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR), she was the author of many leading human rights reports.