Corporate social responsibility and the application of the US Alien Tort State Act: the Kiobel case.

Abstract

The aim of my dissertation is to develop a topic which has been highly debated at the international economic and juridical level today: corporate social responsibility. In particular, I will analyse the different aspects of the relationship existing between multinational enterprises, international law and human rights, focusing on the instruments that directly impose regulatory duties on corporations and on those voluntarily adopted by business itself to regulate its conduct. In addition, I will dedicate an entire chapter to a specific case of study, which is the Kiobel vs Royal Dutch Petroleum case, to give an example of corporate human rights violation. This case will also stand as an example of how corporate human rights violations can be dealt with in the international arena. As a result, the primary subjects of this dissertation are multinational enterprises and the entire analysis will be based on international law.