"Accountability of transnational corporations in the developing world: The case for an enforceable international mechanism", 2017

The purpose of this paper is to contend that the dominant voluntarism approach to the accountability of transnational corporations (TNCs) is inadequate and not fit-for-purpose.  The authors argue for the establishment of an international legal mechanism for securing the accountability of TNCs, particularly in the context of developing countries with notoriously weak governance...The study draw[s] out synergies from particular understandings of corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and international human rights...The specific context of the experiences of developing countries in Africa on the operations of TNCs particularly commends the need and expedience to create an international legal regime for ensuring the accountability of TNCs...Mainstream research in this area has focused mainly on self and voluntary models of regulation and accountability that have privileged the legal fiction of the corporate status of TNCs.  This paper departs from that model to argue for an enforceable model of TNC’s accountability – based on an international mechanism...