Indirect approach to accountability of corporate entities through the lens of the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract

The case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) pertaining to human rights protection of legal persons, including corporate entities, is well developed and extensively analyzed in legal literature. The international law of human rights is in the process of transformation from imposition of obligations only on States, to gradually taking into consideration the accountability of non-State actors, particularly corporate entities. The objective of the paper is to analyze the conceptualization of corporate accountability for violations of human rights in the case law of the ECtHR. The paper shows that the ECtHR thus far has approached the corporate accountability and has called for regulation of corporate activities at the national level by means of applying the doctrine of horizontal effect of rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) referred to as Drittwirkung and the doctrine of positive obligations of the states. The authors argue that the ECtHR so far in its jurisprudence has missed to fully take into account the overarching social and policy developments, and that it should take a more proactive role in conceptualizing its approach to violations of human rights committed by corporate entities.