David Bilchitz publishes his new book ‘Fundamental Rights and the Legal Obligations of Business’

The book asks the question how can we determine what are the obligations of corporations with respect to fundamental rights in law?

David was interviewed by the IACL Blog about the book.

The question the book deals with is relevant to a range of current issues. For instance, the nature of the obligations of Facebook and Twitter with regard to free speech and privacy; the nature of the obligations of companies like Moderna and Pfizer to make their vaccines available across the world; the nature of the obligations of mining companies with respect to the environment and climate change.

The book examines existing legal models around the world and systematizes, justifies and develops what I term a ‘multi-factoral approach’. It examines methods for balancing competing factors – it defends the use of proportionality for ascertaining corporation’s negative obligations and proposes a novel seven-step test for determining their positive obligations.  Since judgment is ineliminable when determining corporate obligations, I finally propose legal and institutional reforms – both at the national and international levels – to improve decision-making surrounding corporate obligations and embed fundamental rights within the corporate structure and the minds of key decision-makers.

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