Vth

SEMESTE
R
JAMIA
MILLIA
ISLAMIA
[TNCSIRAM
PEERZADA

DEFINITION, ROLE AND

SCOPE]

PROJECT SUBMITTED TO MAAM AKRITI MATHUR IN

PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE
DEGREE OF LLB. AT JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA

CERTIFICATE
(2015-16)
THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT IRAM PEERZADA OF B.A.LL.B.
Semester V HAS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED THE PROJECT
ON THE TOPIC TNCs- DEFINITION, ROLE AND SCOPE
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF MISS AKRITI MATHUR
DATE:PLACE:-

Transnational Corporation
Any corporation that is registered and operates in more than one country at a time; also called a
multinational corporation.
A transnational, or multinational, corporation has its headquarters in one country and operates
wholly or partially owned subsidiaries in one or more other countries. The subsidiaries report to
the central headquarters. The growth in the number and size of transnational corporations since
the 1950s has generated controversy because of their economic and political power and the
mobility and complexity of their operations. Some critics argue that transnational corporations
exhibit no loyalty to the countries in which they are incorporated but act solely in their own best
interests.
U.S. corporations have various motives for establishing a corporate presence in other countries.
One possible motive is a desire for growth. A corporation may have reached a plateau meeting
domestic demands and anticipate little additional growth. A new foreign market might provide
opportunities for new growth.
Other corporations desire to escape the protectionist policies of an importing country. Through
direct foreign investment, a corporation can bypass high tariffs that prevent its goods from being
competitively priced. For example, when the European Common Market (the predecessor of the
European Union) placed tariffs on goods produced by outsiders, U.S. corporations responded by
setting up European subsidiaries.
Two other motives are more controversial. One is preventing competition. The most certain
method of preventing actual or potential competition from foreign businesses is to acquire those
businesses. Another motive for establishing subsidiaries in other nations is to reduce costs,
mainly through the use of cheap foreign labor in developing countries. A transnational
corporation can hold down costs by shifting some or all of its production facilities abroad.
Transnational corporations with headquarters in the United States have played an increasingly
dominant role in the world economy. This dominance is most pronounced in the developing
countries that rely primarily on a narrow range of exports, usually primary goods. A transnational
corporation has the ability to disrupt traditional economies, impose monopolistic practices, and
assert a political and economic agenda on a country.
Another concern with transnational corporations is their ability to use foreign subsidiaries to
minimize their tax liability. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must analyze the movement of
goods and services between a transnational company's domestic and foreign operations and then
assess whether the transfer price that was assigned on paper to each transaction was fair. IRS
studies indicate that U.S. transnational corporations have an incentive to set their transfer prices
so as to shift income away from the United States and its higher corporate tax rates and to shift
deductible expenses into the United States. Foreign-owned corporations doing business in the
United States have a similar incentive. Critics argue that these tax incentives also motivate U.S.
transnational corporations to move plants and jobs overseas.

Generally, the term transnational corporation refers to a corporation with affiliated business
operations in more than one country.1 A more specific definition deems an enterprise a TNC if it
has a certain minimum size, if it owns or controls production or service plants outside its home
state and if it incorporates these plants into a unified corporation strategy. According to yet
another definition, a TNC is a cluster of corporations of diverse nationality joined together by
ties of common ownership and responsive to a common management strategy 2. The Draft UN
Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations defines a TNC as [ an enterprise, whether of
public, private or mixed ownership, comprising entities in two or more countries, regardless of
the legal form and fields of activity of these entities, which operates under a system of decisionmaking, permit- ting coherent policies and a common strategy through one or more decisionmaking centres, in which the entities are so linked, by ownership or otherwise, that one or more
of them [may be able to] exercise a significant influence over the activities of others, and, in
particular, to share knowledge, resources and responsibilities with the others 3.] The Norms
specifically define a transnational corporation as an economic entity operating in more than
one country or a cluster of economic entities operating in two or more countries - whatever their
legal form, whether in their home country or country of activity, and whether taken individually
or collectively.
The Norms, however, do not limit their application to TNCs but also include other business
enterprises. The working group defines the phrase other business enterprise as any business
entity, regardless of the international or domestic nature of its activities, including a transnational
corporation, contractor, subcon- tractor, supplier, licensee or distributor; the corporate,
partnership, or other legal form used to establish the business entity; and the nature of the
ownership of the entity. 4 Hence, even though the Norms define TNCs and focus some attention
on transnationals, they are written to include all business entities, regardless of their stated
corporate form or the international or domestic scope of their business. Its breadth deemphasizes the definition of TNCs and does not restrict the Norms scope of application.5

Luzius Wildhaber, Some Aspects of the Transnational Corporation in Interna- tional Law, 27
Neth. Intl L. Rev. 79, 80 (2004).
2
Mary Robinson, Second Global Ethic Lecture, University of Tbingen, Ger- many, (Jan. 21,
2002), at http:// www.ireland.com/newspaper/special/2002/ robinson (last visited Sept. 23,
2005).
3
Draft UN Code, para. 1(a), Development and International Economic Cooperation:
Transnational Corporations, UN Doc. E/1990/94; See also Draft United Nations Code of
Conduct on Transnational Corporations, May 1983, 23 ILM 626 (1984).
4
Mary Robinson, Second Global Ethic Lecture, University of Tbingen, Ger- many (Jan. 21,
2002), at http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/special/2002/ robinson (last visited Sept. 23,
2005).
5
Id.

Need for the UN Norms

Before analyzing the efficacy of the norms in view of human rights, it is important to understand
the international communitys need for such norms in order to appreciate why such norms
emerged. First, since the early 1990s there has been a marked increase in the number of cases
filed against TNCs for human rights abuses globally and in the United States in particular under
the Alien Tort Claims Act. Cases such as Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co.6, Nike Labour
Rights Violation Abroad case7, and Rangoon Forced Labour case,8 illustrate the need for a norm
that would ensure TNCs and the international communitys respect for human rights and
punishment where this respect was violated. TNCs operating in todays global economy face
significant challenges arising from diverse cultural as well as political and economic pressures.
How a TNC responds to the human rights agenda has a significant impact on its business
performance and the publics perception of such company. For example, Shell International faced
criticism from human rights groups for its muted response to the Nigerian governments human
rights abuses and execution of nine Ogoni leaders. Talisman Energy was forced to sell its oil
development assets in Sudan as a result of pressure from human rights activists and
shareholders.9 Examples such as cited above have traditionally negatively impacted the TNCs
involved. As such, TNCs realized that it is advantageous to have a corporate human rights policy
in place that is comprehensive, transparent, verifiable and consistently applied. To make sound
investment decisions, investors often wish to know how a company addresses human rights since
an increasing number of investors are concerned with these issues; there is a significant risk
therefore posed to a company that neg- lects these obligations. As such, there arose the need for a
com- prehensive policy dealing with human rights.
Rights, the International Labour Organizations core labor conventions and the wide range of
other international agreements related to human rights. 10 The Norms help connect the dots for
companies between international human rights agreements and the obligations of companies. The
Norms provide concrete guidance for companies adopting comprehensive human rights policies
covering such areas as equal opportunity, security, rights of workers, respect for national
sovereignty, con- sumer and environmental protection and provisions for implementation. The
key impact of the Norms for TNCs is the clear definition of the role of corporations as promoters
of human rights within their respective spheres of activity and influence while affirming the
primary role of government in promoting human rights and pre- venting abuses. The
6

Aaron X. Fellmeth, Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co.: A New Standard for the Enforcement
of International Law in the U.S. Courts?, 5 Yale Hum. Rts. & Dev. L.J. 241, 244- 45 (2002).
7
Lena Ayoub, Nike Just Does It and Why the United States Shouldnt: The United States
International Obligation to Hold MNCs Accountable for Their Labor Rights Violations Abroad,
11 DePaul Bus. L.J. 395, 400-11 (1999).
8
Anita Ramasastry, Corporate Complicity: From Nuremberg to RangoonAn Examination of
Forced Labor Cases and Their Impact on the Liability of Multina- tional Corporations, 20
Berkeley J. Intl L. 91, 131-36 (2002).
9
Submission by ICCRs Human Rights Working Group to the UN High Commission on Human
Rights, www.iccr.org/news/press_releases/ 2004/pr_hrwgsubmiss100704.htm (last visited
Sept. 10, 2005).
10
Anita Ramasastry, Corporate Complicity: From Nuremberg to RangoonAn Examination of
Forced Labor Cases and Their Impact on the Liability of Multina- tional Corporations, 20
Berkeley J. Intl L. 91, 131-36 (2002).

commentaries on each provision are especially helpful in providing guidance to companies

designing their own human rights policies and practices consistent with the Norms. The Norms
are therefore a welcome addition to voluntary corporate codes of conduct. While these codes are
important in focusing on some human rights issues such as factory conditions for workers, many
are not built firmly on the internationally recognized human rights standards that make up the
Norms. Some standards are shaped more by the culture of a company than by international
human rights conventions. The Norms provide a common template for all companies,
establishing the expectations of minimum standards for human rights performance, which can
create a level playing field for all companies. The Norms are built on already agreed upon human
rights conventions, covenants as well as treaties and set out the need for clear articulation of the
global communitys expectations for corporate behaviour with regard to human rights.

Brief History of TNCs

From the Origins to the Second World War
The earliest historical origins of transnational corporations can be traced to the major colonising
and imperialist ventures from Western Europe, notably England and Holland, which began in the
16th century and proceeded for the next several hundred years. During this period, firms such as
the British East India Trading Company were formed to promote the trading activities or
territorial acquisitions of their home countries in the Far East, Africa, and the Americas. The
transnational corporation as it is known today, however, did not really appear until the 19th
century, with the advent of industrial capitalism and its consequences: the development of the
factory system; larger, more capital intensive manufacturing processes; better storage techniques;
and faster means of transportation. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the search for
resources including minerals, petroleum, and foodstuffs as well as pressure to protect or increase
markets drove transnational expansion by companies almost exclusively from the United States
and a handful of Western European nations. Sixty per cent of these corporations' investments
went to Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Fuelled by numerous mergers and
acquisitions, monopolistic and oligopolistic concentration of large transnationals in major sectors
such as petrochemicals and food also had its roots in these years. The US agribusiness giant
United Fruit Company, for example, controlled 90 per cent of US banana imports by 1899, while
at the start of the First World War, Royal Dutch/Shell accounted for 20 per cent of Russia's total
oil production.
Demand for natural resources continued to provide an impetus for European and US corporate
ventures between the First and Second World Wars. Although corporate investments from Europe
declined somewhat, the activities of US TNCs expanded vigorously. In Japan, this period
witnessed the growth of the zaibatsu (or "financial clique") including Mitsui and Mitsubishi.
These giant corporations, which worked in alliance with the Japanese state, had oligopolistic
control of the country's industrial, financial, and trade sectors.

1945 to the Present

US TNCs heavily dominated foreign investment activity in the two decades after the Second
World War, when European and Japanese corporations began to play ever greater roles. In the
1950s, banks in the US, Europe, and Japan started to invest vast sums of money in industrial
stocks, encouraging corporate mergers and furthering capital concentration. Major technological
advances in shipping, transport (especially by air), computerisation, and communications
accelerated TNCs' increasing internationalisation of investment and trade, while new advertising
capabilities helped TNCs expand market shares. All these trends meant that by the 1970s
oligopolistic consolidation and TNCs' role in global commerce was of a far different scale than
earlier in the century. Whereas in 1906 there were two or three leading firms with assets of
US$500 million, in 1971 there were 333 such corporations, one-third of which had assets of

US$1 billion or more. Additionally, TNCs had come to control 70-80 per cent of world trade
outside the centrally planned economies.
Over the past quarter century, there has been a virtual proliferation of transnat-ionals. In 1970,
there were some 7,000 parent TNCs, while today that number has jumped to 38,000. 90 percent
of them are based in the industrialised world, which control over 207,000 foreign subsidiaries.
Since the early 1990s, these subsidiaries' global sales have surpassed worldwide trade exports as
the principal vehicle to deliver goods and services to foreign markets.
The large number of TNCs can be somewhat misleading, however, because the wealth of
transnationals is concentrated among the top 100 firms which in 1992 had US$3.4 trillion in
global assets, of which approximately US$1.3 trillion was held outside their home countries. The
top 100 TNCs also account for about one-third of the combined outward foreign direct
investment (FDI) of their countries of origin. Since the mid-1980s, a large rise of TNC-led
foreign direct investment has occurred. Between 1988 and 1993, worldwide FDI stock -- a
measure of the productive capacity of TNCs outside their home countries -- grew from US$1.1 to
US$2.1 trillion in estimated book value.
There has also been a great increase in TNC investment in the less-industrialized world since the
mid-1980s; such investment, along with private bank loans, has grown far more dramatically
than national development aid or multilateral bank lending. Burdened by debt, low commodity
prices, structural adjustment, and unemployment, governments throughout the less-industrialised
world today view TNCs, in the words of the British magazine The Economist, as "the
embodiment of modernity and the prospect of wealth: full of technology, rich in capital, replete
with skilled jobs." As a result, The Economist notes further, these governments have been
"queuing up to attract multinationals" and liberalising investment restrictions as well as
privatising public sector industries. For TNCs, less-industrialised countries offer not just the
potential for market expansion but also lower wages and fewer health and environmental
regulations than in the North.

Problems Arising from TNCs

Intra-Company Trade and Manipulative Price Transfers
The post-Second World War period witnessed not merely a rise in TNCs' control of world trade,
but also growth of trade within related enterprises of a given corporation, or "intra-company"
trade. While intra-company trade in natural resource products has been a feature of TNCs since
before 1914, such trade in intermediate products and services is mainly a phenomenon of recent
decades. By the 1960s, an estimated one-third of world trade was intra-company in nature, a
proportion which has remained steady to the present day. The absolute level and value of intracompany trade has increased considerably since that time, however. Moreover, 80 per cent of
international payments for technology royalties and fees are made on an intra-company basis.
Problems stemming from intra-company trade concern TNCs' ability to maximise profits by
avoiding both market mechanisms and national laws with an instrument of internal costing and
accounting known as "transfer pricing." This is a widespread technique whereby TNCs set prices

for transfers of goods, services, technology, and loans between their worldwide affiliates which
differ considerably from the prices which unrelated firms would have had to pay.
There are many benefits TNCs derive from transfer pricing. By lowering prices in countries
where tax rates are high and raising them in countries with a lower tax rate, for example, TNCs
can reduce their overall tax burden, thus boosting their overall profits. Virtually all intracompany relations including advisory services, insurance, and general management can be
categorised as transactions and given a price; charges can as well be made for brand names, head
office overheads, and research and development. Through their accounting systems TNCs can
transfer these prices among their affiliates, shifting funds around the world to avoid taxation.
Governments, which have no way to control TNCs' transfer pricing, are therefore under pressure
to lower taxes as a means of attracting investment or keeping a company's operation in their
country. Tax revenue which might be used for social programs or other domestic needs is thus
lost.
Moreover, in countries where there are government controls preventing companies from setting
product retail prices above a certain percentage of prices of imported goods or the cost of
production, the firms can inflate import costs from their subsidiaries and then impose higher
retail prices. Additionally, TNCs can use overpriced imports or underpriced exports to
circumvent governmental ceilings on profit repatriation, causing nation-states to suffer large
foreign exchange losses. For instance, if a parent company has a profitable subsidiary in a
country where the parent does not wish to re-invest the profits, it can remit them by overpricing
imports into that country. During the 1970s, investigations found that average overpricing by
parent firms on imports by their Latin American subsidiaries in the pharmaceutical industry was
155 per cent, while imports of dyestuffs raw materials by Indian TNC affiliates were being
overpriced between 124 and 147 percent.

Influence in Nations' Political Affairs

TNCs' influence over countries, particularly those in the less-industrialised world, has not been
manifest solely in sheer economic power or manipulative price transfers. Such influence has also
been reflected in corporations' willingness and ability to exert leverage directly by employing
government officials, participating on important national economic policy making committees,
making financial contributions to political parties, and bribery. Furthermore, TNCs actively enlist
the help of Northern governments to further or protect their interests in less-industrialised
nations, assistance which has sometimes has involved military force. In 1954, for instance, the
US launched an invasion of Guatemala to prevent the Guatemalan government from taking (with
compensation plus interest) unused land of United Fruit Company for redistribution to peasants.
Perhaps the most notorious example of TNCs' meddling in the political affairs of a sovereign
state, however, occurred in the early 1970s, when International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT)
offered the US Central Intelligence Agency US$1 million to finance a campaign to defeat the
candidacy of Salvador Allende in Chilean national elections. Though this offer was refused, and
Allende democratically elected, ITT continued to lobby the US government and other US
corporations to promote opposition to Allende through economic pressure including the cutoff of
credit and aid and support of Allende's political rivals. After copper mines in Chile owned by the

firms Kennecott and Anaconda were nationalised, the US government took a series of steps
based largely on the recommendations of ITT to subvert Allende.
Disclosure of ITT's efforts to overthrow Allende helped prompt initiatives in the United Nations
to draft a TNC Code of Conduct to establish some guidelines for corporate behaviour. This move
was part of more general concern about the extent of corporations' economic and political
influence which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, and which led some less-industrialised
countries to demand that TNCs divest from certain sectors or to require changes in the terms of a
company's investment. Yet such developments have been minor and temporary obstacles to the
augmentation of TNCs' economic power, and overall the past three decades have been
characterised by increased regional economic integration, the liberalisation of many international
markets, and the opening up of new are as such as Central and Eastern Europe.

TNCs and International Politics

Especially since the 1980s, TNCs' involvement at international political negotiations and fora has
accompanied and encouraged the rise of global corporate economic power. In an effort to reduce
barriers to trade and investment capital flows in the last decade, TNCs have lobbied vigorously
to shape to their liking Europe's Single Market agreement, the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), and the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT). For TNCs, so-called free trade lessens governmental restrictions on their movement and
ability to maximise returns. "The deregulation of trade aims to erase national boundaries insofar
as these affect economic life," economists Herman Daly and Robert Goodland have noted. "The
policy-making strength of the nation is thereby weakened, and the relative power of TNCs is
increased."
For example, rules established in the GATT's recently concluded Uruguay Round regarding
trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) and trade-related investment measures (TRIMs)
will be of particular benefit to TNCs. The first gives corporations greater capacity to privatise
and patent life forms, including plant and other genetic resources of less-industrialised nations
and peoples. TRIMs render illegal certain measures which countries_ notably Southern
nations_have employed to encourage TNCs to establish linkages with domestic firms. TRIPs,
TRIMs, and other GATT rules fall under the authority of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a
new supranational body which works with the World Bank and other financial institutions to
manage global economic policy to serve transnational corporate interests.
In another demonstration of transnationals' growing political might, and perhaps the most
striking example to date of organised corporate lobbying on the world stage, TNCs' efforts at the
1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro
undermined sections of the Summit's key documents. And well before the Summit took place,
TNC pressure had led to the removal from UNCED materials proposals to regulate the practices
of global corporations.
This success in Rio underscores a broader issue: although TNCs are collectively the world's most
powerful economic force, no intergovernmental organisation is charged with regulating their
behaviour. United Nations efforts to monitor and to some extent address TNCs' impacts, notably

through the UN's Centre on Transnational Corporations (CTC), have recently been decimated.
Under a 1992 restructuring, the CTC lost its independent status, and in 1993 it was dismantled
and a 17-year attempt to negotiate the aforementioned Code of Conduct on TNCs was
abandoned. A new Division on Transnational Corporations and Investment emerged_with the
aim of promoting foreign direct investment.

TNCs, Human Health, and the Environment

The unwillingness or inability of national governments to control TNCs in a period of
deregulated global trade and investment does not bode well for people's health or the
environment. TNC operations routinely expose workers and communities to an array of health
and safety and ecological dangers. All too often these operations erupt into disasters such as the
gas release at the Indian subsidiary of the US-based corporation Union Carbide in Bhopal.
To regard such tragedies only as "accidents," however, distracts attention from the larger,
inherent harm to the planet and its inhabitants TNCs' industrial development strategies cause. For
example, TNC activities generate more than half of the greenhouse gases emitted by the
industrial sectors with the greatest impact on global warming. TNCs control 50 percent of all oil
extraction and refining, and a similar proportion of the extraction, refining, and marketing of gas
and coal. Additionally, TNCs have virtually exclusive control of the production and use of
ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and related compounds.
In destructive minerals extraction, TNCs still dominate key industries. In aluminum, for
example, just six companies account for 63 per cent of the mine capacity, 66 per cent of the
refining capacity, and 54 per cent of the smelting capacity. Four TNCs account for half the
world's tin smelting capacity. With respect to their influence on global agriculture, TNCs control
80 per cent of land worldwide which is cultivated for export-oriented crops, often displacing
local food crop production. Twenty TNCs account for about 90 per cent of the sales of hazardous
pesticides. Additionally, because TNCs control much of the world's genetic seed stocks as well as
finance the bulk of biotechnology research worldwide, they are poised to reap large financial
rewards from patenting life forms.
TNCs also manufacture most of the world's chlorine _ the basis for some of the most toxic,
persistent, and bioaccumulative synthetic chemicals known such as PCBs, DDT, dioxins and
furans, chlorinated solvents, and thousands of other organochlorine compounds. These
chemicals' impacts on health include: immune suppression; birth defects; cancer; reproductive,
developmental, and neurological harm; and damage to the liver and other organs. As a group,
TNCs lead in the export and import of products and technologies that have been controlled or
banned in some countries for health and safety reasons. For instance, 25 per cent of total
pesticide exports by TNCs from the US in the late l980s were chemicals that were banned,
unregistered, canceled, or withdrawn in the US itself. And a handful of Northern companies are
responsible for the nuclear technology now found at plants in South America and Asia.
TNCs and their business associations claim that deregulated trade and investment will produce
enough growth to end poverty and generate resources for environmental protection. The
unrestricted free trade and investment-based growth beloved by TNCs, however, is the same kind

of development which has led to overexploitation of land and natural resources, air, water, and
soil pollution, ozone depletion, global warming, and toxic waste generation. As economists
Herman Daly and Robert Goodland observe: "The dream that growth will raise world wages to
the current rich country level, and that all can consume resources at the U.S. per capita rate, is in
total conflict with ecological limits that are already stressed beyond sustainability."

TNCs and Occupational Safety

There have been many instances of TNCs failing to control industrial hazards at their facilities in
less-industrialised nations as thoroughly as in their home countries. The situation in Bhopal,
where comparison of operations of Union Carbide's Indian subsidiary and a similar plant in the
US has revealed many double standards, is only the most infamous example of what the
Industrial Labour Organisation acknowledges is a prevailing trend: "In comparing the health and
safety performance of home-based [TNCs] with that of the subsidiaries, it could generally be
said that the home country operations were better than those of subsidiaries in the developing
countries." The case of the German TNC Bayer's chromate production factory in South Africa is
illustrative. Chromate is a corrosive compound which can cause respiratory illness including
lung cancer. Bayer has owned the facility, Chrome Chemicals, since 1968. In 1976, a South
African government report noted health problems in nearly half the plant's employees which
were related to their work and which, it said, "are extremely disturbing and would appear to
indicate a lack of concern regarding the physical welfare of the workers."
In 1990, a trade union learned that several workers had developed lung cancer, although none
had been informed that the disease might be related to their employment. Chrome Chemicals
management refused the union's request to review the plant's industrial hygiene records, and in
1991 the firm shut down much of its operation and laid off most of its workers. In South Africa,
lung cancer was not added to the list of compensable occupational diseases until 1994, and Bayer
has so far refused to provide compensation to a growing number of former employees at Chrome
Chemicals who have developed lung cancer. Bayer could not get away with this in Germany,
where as early as 1936 lung cancer was considered a compensable occupational disease for
chromate workers. Indeed, German compensation authorities consider any labourer with more
than three months of chromate work eligible for compensation if lung cancer develops
subsequently.

TNCs and Employment

In an era of declining constraints on their mobility and the attraction of cheaper wages in lessindustrialised nations eager to draw foreign investment, TNCs are eliminating jobs in their home
countries and shifting production abroad. Although overall TNCs' employment in their home
countries has changed little in the last decade, among the 300 largest corporations employment in
1989 was lower than it had been in 1980. US-based TNCs have eliminated jobs especially
vigorously. Between 1982 and 1993, for example, US TNCs cut over three-quarters of a million
jobs at home but added 345,000 jobs outside the United States. For workers in the US and other
industrialised countries, TNCs' increased willingness to move operations to lower wage areas

along with their greater use of automation, subcontractors, and part-time labour have rendered
the strike relatively ineffective and undermined trade unions' collective bargaining power. In the
US, there were one-tenth the number of strikes in 1993 as in 1970, and only 12 per cent of the
US workforce is currently unionised, a lower proportion than in 1936.
In less-industrialised regions, the lure for TNCs of fewer costs and regulations offers little
promise to workers of decent working conditions, sufficient pay, or job security. Tax breaks and
subsidies governments use as incentives are no guarantee that the TNCs will not move on after
the benefits have expired, and as cost advantages now found in Singapore appear in, say,
Bangladesh, the countries currently experiencing an influx of investment may eventually find
themselves in the same position as that of the US and other industrialised nations today.
More fundamentally, as Richard Barnet has emphasised, the transnational corporate order cannot
begin to solve the chronically severe unemployment problems in Asia, Latin America, and
Africa, where an estimated 38 million new job seekers enter the labor market annually. A
comparison of the growth in TNCs' outward foreign investment stock worldwide and their
estimated global direct employment in recent decades lays this fact bare. Between 1975 and
1992, outward FDI stock increased almost seven times, whereas TNCs' employment did not even
double. In less-industrialised countries, TNCs added only five million employees between 1985
and 1992.

DEFINITION
Multi National Corporations (MNC) or also known as Trans National Corporations
(TNC) has become a phenomenon in economic international law since the end of 19 th century.
MNC is holding one of the main roles in world development today. Even United Nations itself
considers its core position and has a special committee named The United Nations Commission
in Transnational Corporations regarding MNCs issue.
The definition of MNC itself according to The Draft Code of Conduct on Transnational
Corporations is an enterprise, comprising entities in two or more countries, regardless of the
legal form and fields of activity of there entities, which operates under a system if decision
making, permitting coherent polities and a common strategy through one or more decision
making countries, in which the entities are so linked, by ownership or otherwise, that one or
more of them may be able to exercise a significant influence over the activities of others, and, in
particular, to share knowledge, resources and responsibilities with the others.11
The existence of MNC in international law has rising some problem, such as its legal
status and jurisdiction issue. As we know MNC has some competence as a legal subject, such as
its capability to make agreement with other legal entities including states. The least is an issue
which emerges after the involvement of MNC in a country has become further than ever, until it
is said to be an intervention. It is possible because the investment from MNC is needed by a
country to develop them, so the country might be allow some special policy for the sake of
MNCs interest.
Moreover, the MNC still have a big role in the international economic development.
MNC, through the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), is the driving force behind globalization. As
the growth of FDI has expanded, the sources and destinations of the investment have become
more diverse. This has increase the economic integration of the world economic.12
However, there is another problem that arises from the FDI. It is the activity that
sometimes hostile the rights of the people and environment. It happens a lot, most of it is in
developing countries. This problem includes the issue regarding permanents sovereignty over
natural resource. The developing countries struggle their right in the massive expansion of FDI to
their country. Thus, there are some regulations to organize the FDI, to make sure it gives benefits
to the host country.

11

*this legal review was originally made for application of ALSA Forum 2010 selection;25 th
april 2010
Huala Adolf, Hukum Ekonomi Internasional:Suatu Pengantar, Jakarta:Rajagrafindo Persada,
page 83
12
http://www.geographyjim.org/login/index.php

LEGAL ISSUES
The obligation of MNC has regulated in several multilateral instrument, the most
generally accepted is The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (hereinafter the OECD Guidelines) . The OECD
Guidelines rule that MNC should take fully into account established policies in the countries in
which they operate, and consider the views of other stakeholders. In this regard, MNC should:
1. Contribute to economic, social and environmental progress with a view to achieving
sustainable development.
2. Respect the human rights of those affected by their activities consistent with the host
governments international obligations and commitments.
3. Encourage local capacity building through close co-operation with the local community,
including business interests, as well as developing the enterprises activities in domestic
and foreign markets, consistent with the need for sound commercial practice.
4. Encourage human capital formation, in particular by creating employment opportunities
and facilitating training opportunities for employees.
5. Refrain from seeking or accepting exemptions not contemplated in the statutory or
regulatory framework related to environmental, health, safety, labour, taxation, financial
incentives, or other issues.
6. Support and uphold good corporate governance principles and develop and apply good
corporate governance practices.
7. Develop and apply effective self-regulatory practices and management systems that foster
a relationship of confidence and mutual trust between enterprises and the societies in
which they operate.
8. Promote employee awareness of, and compliance with, company policies through
appropriate dissemination of these policies, including through training programmes.
9. Refrain from discriminatory or disciplinary action against employees who make bona
fide reports to management or, as appropriate, to the competent public authorities, on
practices that contravene the law, the Guidelines or the enterprises policies.
10. Encourage, where practicable, business partners, including suppliers and sub-contractors,
to apply principles of corporate conduct compatible with the Guidelines.
11. Abstain from any improper involvement in local political activities.13
Related with environmental issue, The OECD Guidelines have a special section which
regulate that MNC should, within the framework of laws, regulations and administrative
practices in the countries in which they operate, and in consideration of relevant international
agreements, principles, objectives, and standards, take due account of the need to protect the
environment, public health and safety, and generally to conduct their activities in a manner
contributing to the wider goal of sustainable development. In particular, MNC should:
13

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises---General Policy section II

1. Establish and maintain a system of environmental management appropriate to the

enterprise, including:
a) Collection and evaluation of adequate and timely information regarding the
environmental, health, and safety impacts of their activities;
b) Establishment of measurable objectives and, where appropriate, targets for
improved environmental performance, including periodically reviewing the
continuing relevance of these objectives; and
c) Regular monitoring and verification of progress toward environmental, health,
and safety objectives or targets.
2. Taking into account concerns about cost, business confidentiality, and the protection of
intellectual property rights:
a) Provide the public and employees with adequate and timely information on the
potential environment, health and safety impacts of the activities of the
enterprise, which could include reporting on progress in improving
environmental performance; and
b) Engage in adequate and timely communication and consultation with the
communities directly affected by the environmental, health and safety
policies of the enterprise and by their implementation.
3. Assess, and address in decision-making, the foreseeable environmental, health, and
safety-related impacts associated with the processes, goods and services of the enterprise
over their full life cycle. Where these proposed activities may have significant
environmental, health, or safety impacts, and where they are subject to a decision of a
competent authority, prepare an appropriate environmental impact assessment.
4. Consistent with the scientific and technical understanding of the risks, where there are
threats of serious damage to the environment, taking also into account human health and
safety, not use the lack of full scientific certainty as a reason for postponing cost-effective
measures to prevent or minimise such damage.
5. Maintain contingency plans for preventing, mitigating, and controlling serious
environmental and health damage from their operations, including accidents and
emergencies; and mechanisms for immediate reporting to the competent authorities.
6. Continually seek to improve corporate environmental performance, by encouraging,
where appropriate, such activities as:
a) Adoption of technologies and operating procedures in all parts of the enterprise
that reflect standards concerning environmental performance in the best
performing part of the enterprise;
b) Development and provision of products or services that have no undue
environmental impacts; are safe in their intended use; are efficient in their
consumption of energy and natural resources; can be reused, recycled, or
disposed of safely;
c) Promoting higher levels of awareness among customers of the environmental
implications of using the products and services of the enterprise; and
d) Research on ways of improving the environmental performance of the enterprise
over the longer term.
7. Provide adequate education and training to employees in environmental health and safety
matters, including the handling of hazardous materials and the prevention of
environmental accidents, as well as more general environmental management areas, such

as environmental impact assessment procedures, public relations, and environmental

technologies.
8. Contribute to the development of environmentally meaningful and economically efficient
public policy, for example, by means of partnerships or initiatives that will enhance
environmental awareness and protection.14
Moreover, there is another multilateral instrument that regulates the obligation of MNC
related with the rights of people and environment of host country, it is the Norms on the
Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to
Human Rights. It is regulates that MNC should respect economic, social and cultural rights as
well as civil and political rights and contribute to their realization, in particular the rights to
development, adequate food and drinking water, the highest attainable standard of physical and
mental health, adequate housing, privacy, education, freedom of thought, conscience, and
religion and freedom of opinion and expression, and shall refrain from actions which obstruct or
impede the realization of those rights. Furthermore, it is police the MNC to carry out their
activities in accordance with national laws, regulations, administrative practices and policies
relating to the preservation of the environment of the countries in which they operate, as well as
in accordance with relevant international agreements, principles, objectives, responsibilities and
standards with regard to the environment as well as human rights, public health and safety,
bioethics and the precautionary principle, and shall generally conduct their activities in a manner
contributing to the wider goal of sustainable development.15
The obligation concerning permanent sovereignty over natural resources as the main
thing in FDI problem in most of developing countries is first being enunciated in the Charter of
Economic Rights and Duties of States (UNGA resolution 3281 (XXXI) in December 1974).
Then it is being regulated in General Assembly resolution 1803 (XVII) of 14 December 1962. It
is noted that the capital imported and the earnings on that capital shall be governed by the terms
thereof, by the national legislation in force, and by international law. The profits derived must be
shared in the proportions freely agreed upon, in each case, between the investors and the
recipient State, due care being taken to ensure that there is no impairment, for any reason, of that
State's sovereignty over its natural wealth and resources. Furthermore, FDI agreements freely
entered into States shall be observed in good faith; it shall strictly and conscientiously respect the
sovereignty of peoples and nations over their natural wealth and resources in accordance with the
Charter and the principles set forth in the present resolution. 16 The permanent sovereignty over
natural resources is later known as established human rights, especially for developing countries
in its relation with FDI.
Unfortunately, the execution of the well-formed regulation has not been great. It is still far from
ideal. The regulation has not being assisted with a lofty system. Those obstacles are fence for
entering FDI and have being a barrier for the economic integration.

14

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises---Environment section V

Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business
Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/12/Rev.2(2003)--point 12 and 14
16
General Assembly resolution 1803 (XVII) of 14 December 1962
15

Trans-National Companies
The development
ABSTRACT: The largest source of external funds to developing countries is not development
assistance whether bilateral, multilateral, loans, grants, official or other. It is foreign direct
investment (FDI). FDI represents an enormous supply of financial resources, technology and
jobs and is of great potential benefit to emerging economies. FDI comes from the private sector,
from large companies willing to invest anywhere. These companies, called trans-national
companies (TNCs), are important but accidental participants in the development process. Their
role and importance are described in this paper.
Trans-National Corporations (TNCs) sometimes referred to as multinational companies, are
enterprises that control economic assets in other countries generally this means controlling at
least a 10% share of such an asset 17. These companies command enormous financial resources,
possess vast technical resources and have extensive global reach. In 2002, the most recent year
for which full data are available, FDI made throughout the world totaled some $651bn 18. While
most FDI goes to developed countries; for developing countries it is by far the largest source of
external finance.
Despite their impact in developing economies, however, TNCs are not development agencies.
They are profit-seeking organizations. These dual roles of funding source and profit
seeker unrelated roles that are neither conflicting nor complementary have made
TNCs object of great controversy. Do they help or hinder? Do they give or take? Are their
benign or malign? Are they stakeholders or exploiters? Can they be persuaded to be good world
citizens or are they indifferent to their impact?
Throughout the world, there are some 64,000 TNCs controling 870,000 foreign affiliates.
Globalization, particularly the dismantling of trade barriers, has allowed companies to spread
widely in search of cost efficiency and to implement integrated production strategies across
regions and even continents19. Unquestionably, they bring resources of great potential benefit to
developing countries.
TNCs, and the FDI they bring, have the potential to generate employment, raise productivity,
transfer skills and technology, enhance exports and contribute to the long-term economic
development of developing countries. They infuse money into an economy where it can
supplement or free- up government revenues and/or development assistance funds. TNCs also
bolster the private sectors of the countries where they operate, a process deemed important to
overall economic growth and economic health20.
17

Definitions of TNC, FDI and related concepts

UNCTAD (2004a), p 2.
19
One-third of global trade is intra-firm trade. Refer to UNCTAD website
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/StartPage.asp?intItemID=2527&lang=1
20
Refer to G8 (2004) for more on this
18

Despite this positive potential, the TNC phenomenon also carries some negative potential. A
number of objections to their behavior in developing countries have been raised:
1. For both real and ideological reasons, some stakeholders distrust the impact of TNCs on
vulnerable economies. It has been reported that Twenty-nine of the worlds 100 biggest
economic entitles are multinational companies 21. That degree of economic strength wielded
within a weak economy by an powerful organization required by fiduciary responsibility to give
top priority to shareholder return cannot be counted on to respect the best interests of the host
country22.
2. Specific instances of serious problems with TNC practices frequently related to
environmental despoilment have created civil unrest and a backlash against the presence of
multinational companies, especially large and politically well-connected ones. Shell Oil
Company in Nigeria, Bechtel in Bolivia, Union Carbide in India, ChevronTexaco in Ecuador are
cases of major TNC presence that has generated major problems23.
3. While TNCs can come, bringing jobs, money and technology to areas that need them; they can
also leave, possibly taking some of those benefits away with them. Sony Corporation left West
Java, Indonesia due to a poor business climate. Anglo-American, a mining company, withdrew
copper investments from Zambia as part of a restructuring. Emerging market Asian countries
worry that China will attract investment that had been coming to them24.
4. TNCs, for their part, may be discouraged by obstacles facing them in host countries: opaque
legal/regulatory systems, corruption, inadequate infrastructure, political uncertainty and other
elements of an unfavorable investment climate. Nationalization or expropriation may also be a
concern to them.
5. Developing country governments sometimes fear that powerful TNCs will crowd out
domestic industry or damage infant industries that they hope to nurture25.
Against these objections, a reasonable case can be made that TNCs are as much, if not more,
dependent on a well-functioning global economic system than is any other stakeholder
including governments and citizens of poor countries. And, while it can be in their financial
interest to shift FDI from locale to locale, the stability and predictability that comes from longerterm commitment is better. For such reasons as these, TNCs can function effectively as
good global citizens. It is notable, for example, that they are active in promoting control
of greenhouse gases because they see it as being in their interests 26. Prevention and treatment of
HIV/AIDS is another area of mutual interest to TNCs and to local residents. Coca Cola, for one
21

de Jonquires (2002). For a concise interpretation of this situation, refer to Bhagwati

(2004), p 166.
22
Refer to Christian Aid (2004) for a statement of this concern
23
Shells presence has generated civil conflict in the Niger Delta region. Bechtel is suing the
government of Bolivia over cancellation of a water contract for the city of Cochabamba.
Union Carbides poisonous gas leak, that killed thousands in Bhopal in 1994, is still being
litigated. ChevronTexaco is being sued by indigenous Amazon rainforest people for
environmental damage.
24
China is a huge FDI host country, with an inflow in 2002 of $53bn. Refer to UNCTAD
(2003), p 42.
25
Refer to UNCTAD (2003) pp 104-105 for more on this.
26
Maitland (2002), Financial Times 2004

example, plans to spend as much as $5m per year on treatment for the employees of its bottlers
in Africa and Microsofts Bill Gates is giving $100m from the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation to fight AIDS in India.
Recognizing the potential for good and bad from powerful multinational companies, several
programs have been initiated to make the TNC/development interface more harmonious and
effective. One program called, Equator Principles, applies specifically to banks and their
lending criteria. It requires that they follow social and environmental guidelines of the World
Banks private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) when
lending to developing countries27. Another vehicle for enhancing the TNC/development interface
is the Caux Roundable, which promotes moral capitalism28.
Some attempts are even underway to go a step further and incorporate TNCs into development
efforts by persuading them to be actively rather than passively involved in development
strategies. The main vehicle for this is corporate social responsibility (CSR), sometimes referred
to simply as corporate responsibility (CR). In March 2004, a conference was organized in
Stockholm, Sweden to explore how bilateral and multilateral donors can support business
activity that contributes to sustainable development, particularly in developing countries29.
In a similar vein, the United Nations Global Compact requested a study by SustainAbility, a
specialized business consultancy, of options for enhancing the role of TNCs 30. The Global
Compact is the foremost program to encourage acceptance by TNCs of their responsibilities to
developing host countries. It was introduced to promote CSR in 1999, as a personal initiative of
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. At its core are 10 principles relating to human
rights, labor, corruption and the environment. TNCs are asked to adhere voluntarily to these
principles in support of UN goals and in their business activitiesGlobal Compact globally 31.
The Compact website currently indicates 1698 participants, though not all are businesses
NGOs and other relevant parties are also included.
While CSR receives much attention as a concept for bringing companies into the development
paradigm, there is some dispute over its applicability. Corporate social responsibility is an
established business principle encoded in many national laws. Technically it applies to the
responsibility of a company to its shareholders; whether such responsibility is expandable to
other stakeholders is not entirely clear32. This lack of clarity is one reason why the alternative
term, CR, was devised. Some of the confusion about the CSR concept relates to its position
somewhere between philanthropy what a company does because it wants to and law
what a company does because it has to 33. Philanthropy carries no obligation, and may be a shield
to obscure wrong-doing, while law denotes minimally required behavior for which there is no
27

Equator Principles, should not be confused with the Equator Initiative, an international
movement to preserve biodiversity in the Equator belt, for which UNDP acts as secretariat.
The Initiative, http://www.undp.org/equatorinitiative/,began in August 2001 The Principles ,
http://www.equator-principles.com/, began in June 2003.
28
http://www.cauxroundtable.org/index.html
29
Fox (2004), p 1.
30
SustainAbility (2004)
31
http://www.unglobalcompact.org/
32
UNCTAD (2001)
33
UNCTAD (1999) and (2003)

choice. The debate about CSR is how much of an obligation is an ethical obligation. There is a
spectrum of thinking on this question:
A member of a libertarian think tank, the Hoover Institute in Menlo Park, California, has
written that businesses do not have social responsibilities; only people do 34. Civil groups and
NGOs insist that TNCs have an ethical obligation to incorporate human rights and values into
their activities and that a legal framework for enforcement should be created 35. Some NGO
analytic and advocacy groups want CSR to encompass strategic support of sustainable
development.
As for the companies, themselves, paradoxically it seems that these organizations which exist to
pursue their own interest realize that in an increasingly globalized world it is increasingly in their
interest to be good international corporate citizens. As the Chairman of the International
Chamber of Commerce has recently said:
As business people, it is our responsibility to stand up for the global economy. As the creators of
wealth, we must show by example how the benefits of an integrated world economy can be
harnessed for the good of companies and people and local economies everywhere36.
The international agency which serves as the focal point for most of the elements included in this
complex issue TNCs, FDI, least developed countries and the trade/development nexus is
the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). UNCTAD is working to
include aspects of CSR (which it sometimes refers to as good corporate citizenship) in
international investment agreements (IIAs), the agreements which define the relationship
between TNC home and host country governments.
Binding agreements such as these mean that the developing countries who host TNCs need not
take statements of good intentions as promises, nor rely entirely on the voluntary commitments
of the Global Compact. Agreements allow them to manage TNC presence by pursuing a dual
approach, in keeping with the dual role of the companies: On the one hand, governments can
encourage FDI inflows that bring jobs, technology and money. On the other hand, they can be
careful to preserving their national policy space, which is embodied in the right to regulate that
is well-recognized in international trade law.37

34

Miller (2004)
Maitland (2004),
36
Fourtou (2004)
37
UNCTAD (2003) pp 85 and p 145.
35

Role of transnational corporations in the international trade

In conditions of integration, internationalization and globalization processes, the
activity of transnational corporations is the main driving forces of economic growth. The
leading role of such entities in the world economy raises the broader their presentation,
especially since there are many different definitions of transnational companies (transnational
corporations - TNCs).
According to the United Nations (UN) transnational corporation is one that:
has branches and/or branches with at least two countries,
create a management system to ensure implementation by the branch of the common
strategies and policies,
the linkage forms of subsidiaries which interact each others38
.United Nations sets out the definition of transnational company, as an economic entity with
legal personality or not having legal personality, composed of the mother company and its
foreign affiliaties 39
.Transnational corporations are characterized by:
the sovereignty consists of the fact that strategic decisions of TNCs are taken independent
of the countries of investment. However the Sovereignty, does not protect them against the
risk of investment (more or less), because they are depending on the economic conditions or the
political situation of the country;
the geographical spread;
the organizational flexibility in the processes of production;
the specialization in the production of goods or components depended on the demand of
investments;
38

United Nation Centre on Transnational Corporation, Transnational Corporation in World

Development, New
York 1983 s. 28.
39
World Investment Report 2000, Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions and Development,
UNCTAD, Genewa
2000, s. 267.

 the ability to integrate. Specialization in the production of the TNCS is the main factor of its
efficiency. However, it requires the good coordination of their activities, the perfect flow of
information, technology and human resources between branches and corporates offices;
involving the ability to carry out many operations simultaneously on different markets, in
order to use the economic differences (in prices, in terms of production, resources, and in the
ax regulations), the effect is the ability for high current or prospective performance40
.

Transnational corporations in the world today

The importance of transnational corporations in the modern world economy stems
not only of the theoretical foundations but of the economic side. The dynamic development of
corporations have started in the fifties of the twenty century. The result of this situation was
the increase of amount of capital invested in different region of world. In 1969, the world,
have about seven thousand transnational corporations41
. In 1992, over 37 thousand TNCs, and about 200,000 foreign affiliates, and in 1996 this figure
had risen to over 44,500, which
control more than 270 thousand subsidiaries, and in 2000 to over 62 thousand and of 820
thousand its foreign subsidiaries, and in 2008 the number of transnational corporations in the
world amounted to 82 thousands which controlled 810 thousand subsidiaries
. The main role for the world economy have the largest one hundred transnational corporations.
In drawing up its annual rankings by the UNCTAD top positions occupied by the biggest
corporations did not change over the years. In 2008, the initial locations on the list were: General
Electric, Vodafone and Royal Dutch .
In 2008, most companies out of one hundred largest corporations have their
headquarters in the Triad countries, the United States, the European Union countries and
40

A. Zorska, Ku globalizacji? Przemiany w korporacjach transnarodowych w gospodarce

wiatowej, PWN,
Warszawa 2000, s. 50-57.
41
World Investment Report 1994. Transnational Corporations Employment and the
Workplace, United Nations,
New York and Geneva 1994, s. 15-17, World Investment Report, World Investment Report.
Transnational
Corporations, Agricultural Production and Development, UNCTAD, New York and Genewa
2009, s. 17.

Japan. However in 1993 none of the 100 largest corporations was the transnational
corporation from developing countries or underdeveloped, while in the 2007 on the list
appeared seven of them: three corporations from Korea, one form China, Hong Kong and
Malaysia and Mexico. Place of choice for doing business of multinational corporations were
mainly developed countries. Place of choice for TNCs from developed countries are countries
such as UK, Germany, Netherlands, United States, Japan. However, has increased the
importance of developing countries as a place of transnational corporations location. The
reason for the increasing role of TNCs in developing countries is to increase of their number
in: China and India. They now reach the highest rate of economic development, obtain the
best results in international trade and are the top trading partners.
The dominant influence of TNCs on globalization and regionalization processes, determines their
potential in the global economy.

The Roles and Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations with Regard to

Human Rights
Transnational corporations (hereinafter referred as TNCs) also called Multinational Enterprises
(MNEs) or Multinational Corporations (MNCs) 42 evoke particular concern in relation to recent
global trends because they are active in some of the most dynamic sectors of national economies,
such as extractive industries, telecommunications, information technology, electronic consumer
goods, footwear and apparel, transport, banking and finance, insurance, and securities trading.
Some transnational corporations, however, do not respect minimum international human rights
standards and can thus be implicated in abuses such as employing child labourers, discriminating
against certain groups of employees, failing to provide safe and healthy working conditions,
attempting to repress independent trade unions, discouraging the right to bargain collectively,
limiting the broad dissemination of appropriate technology and intellectual property, and
dumping toxic wastes. Some of these abuses disproportionately affect developing countries,
children, minorities, and women who work in unsafe and poorly paid production jobs, as well as
indigenous communities and other vulnerable groups.
Negative impacts of the activities of
TNCs in host countries, particularly in developing countries, have led to recognition of the need
to strengthen the international legal norms, especially within the framework of UN. Thus, in
1974 UN General Assembly adopted the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, which
lays down that the State has the right to regulate and supervise the activities of transnational
corporations within its national jurisdiction and take measures to ensure that such activities
comply with its laws, rules and regulations and conform with its economic and social policies. 43
Furthermore, the activities of TNCs with regard to supporting and respecting the protection of
human rights could be positive in nature, affecting the state through encouraging them to
improve domestic legislation and policies in this field. Moreover, TNCs can assist to promote
public understanding of human rights. Thus, the question of clarification of roles played by
TNCs with regard to human rights is of ultimate significance and it requires a theoretical
examination. In addition, the view of existing initiatives and standards on TNCs and human
rights indicates that there is a gap in understanding the nature and scope of responsibilities of
TNCs with regard to human rights. This fact also determines the relevance of this research study.
In doing so, the authors do not in any way impinge upon the challenge to the classical theory of
international human rights law which establishes that the primary responsibility for
implementing the legislation on human rights is vested in the State. The purpose of this research
42

A transnational corporation can be defined as an economic entity operating in two or more

countries whatever their legal form, whether in their home country or country of activity,
and whether taken individually or collectively (Draft Norms on the Responsibilities of
Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, UN
Economic and Social Council of 26 August 2003,
43
Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States of 1974. Art.2, p.2 (b).

is to define clearly the nature of the multifaceted roles played by TNCs in international human
rights law; to examine main international instruments governing the responsibilities of TNCs
with regard to human rights, as well as to provide possible leads on how to improve the
theoretical and practical aspects in order to reduce the number of cases of TNCs involvement in
human rights abuses. To achieve abovementioned purpose our research tasks will try to:
Recognize the close link between TNCs and human rights in the contemporary conditions of
development of society;
Identify and define the role, significance and legal status of TNCs in international human rights
law;
Establish the scope of responsibilities of TNCs with regard to the promotion and support the
protection of human rights, while not exposing the spread of primary liability of States for
implementation of human rights legislation;
To review, summarize and systematize the international legal instruments governing the
responsibilities of TNCs with regard to the promotion and support the protection of human
rights;
To develop and examine main international mechanisms for the implementation of the
principles of responsibilities of TNCs with regard to human rights:
To formulate conclusions and proposals concerning the proper definition of roles and
responsibilities of TNCs with regard to human rights on the basis of the study.

THE ROLES AND SIGNIFICANCE OF TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

IN

The classical theory on Human Rights does not accept any link other than that between people
and State. In other words, from the very emergence of a State being as a main actor in the
international society, the protection of fundamental human rights has been traditionally
applicable to its scope of responsibility. Therefore, in modern society, States carry out both the
protection and the violation of human rights.44 However, since International Human Rights Law
appeared in the twentieth century, more and more attention has been paid to the question of the
legal personality of transnational corporations. Although TNCs themselves do not possess legal
personality in order to participate in international relations as well as in the creation of norms of
international law, we subscribe to the opinion of Professor Y. M. Kolosov who considers that
Transnational corporations correspond to a drastically new level of international differentiation
of labour which gives the right to talk about the foundation of so-called Transnational Law as a

44

Kurtis F. J. Dobbler: Izuchenie mejdunarodnogo prava prav cheloveka [Studying

International Human Rights Law], Tashkentskiy Gosudarstvenniy Yuridicheskiy Istitut,
Tashkent, 2004, p. 6

branch of International Economic Law within the framework of which TNCs could hold not only
rights but also obligations.45
While speaking about the legal personality of transnational corporation in International Human
Rights Law, one should not neglect the fact that the whole structure of sustainable development
including human rights is necessarily dependent on transnational corporations direct
participation. It is evident in Principles 5 and 27 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development of 1992, where the obligations arising from sustainable development are addressed
to all States and people. At the same conference Agenda 21 of the Rio Declaration was
adopted. Chapter 30 of this Agenda spells out the role of transnational corporations in sustainable
development, particularly by increasing the efficiency of resource utilization, promotion of
cleaner production, reduction of waste, environmental reporting, and other concerns. Likewise,
The United Nations Millennium Declaration, adopted in 2000 by the General Assembly,
recognizes the role of industry and transnational corporations expressly in making essential drugs
available and affordable in less developed countries and engaging in programs in pursuit of
poverty eradication (Principle 20) and implicitly in most other principles. The corollary of these
instruments is the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development Johannesburg Declaration
on Sustainable Development which expressly stated, in pursuit of its legitimate activities the
private sector [] has a duty to contribute to the evolution of equitable and sustainable
communities and societies.46 Similarly, Principle 29 is adamant that: there is a need for private
sector corporations to enforce corporate accountability, which should take place within a
transparent and stable regulatory environment.47 On a regional level, the European Union
Parliament in its response to the Commission's Communication concerning Corporate Social
Responsibility and business contribution to sustainable development noted the widespread and
increasing recognition that undertakings have obligations other than just making profits. 48 More
significantly, the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is no longer a
mere standard-setting instrument but an expression of customary international law, proclaims
A common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that governments,
other organs of society and individuals shall strive, by teaching and education to promote respect
for human rights and freedoms.
Let us now analyze the role that transnational corporations play in International Human Rights
Law as well as their capacity to influence government policy and practice. On one hand, the
financial strength of most transnational corporations and the desire of less developed countries to
attract foreign investment make TNCs be able to promote the economy of receiving countries.
Transnational corporations organize modern, high-technological production, provide with new
work places, promote export and import, and train local staff in the use of up-to- date technology
and manufacturing methods. In doing so, many TNCs have also taken steps to help promote
45

Y. M. Kolosov & E. S. Krivchikova: Mejdunarodnoe pravo [International Law], Uchebnik.

Mejdunarodnie otnosheniya, Moscow, 2000, p. 86
46
See: Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development of 2002, World Summit on
Sustainable Development, Agenda Item No. 13, para. 27, revised UN. Doc. A/
CONF.199/L.6/Rev.2/Corr.
47
Ibidem, Agenda Item No. 13, para. 29
48
: Commission of the European Communities: Report on the Communication from the
Commission Concerning Corporate Social Responsibility: A Business Contribution to
Sustainable Development, Brussels 2 July 2002.

public understanding of human rights. For example, it is widely known that a decade ago the
Italian clothing retailer Benetton launched a successful public advertising campaign to mark the
50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Likewise, there is the annual
award to young human rights activists given by Reebok International Ltd. Other TNCs have
chosen to help raise awareness of human rights by creating sections on their web sites devoted to
human rights, many of which offer links to human rights organizations.49 On the other hand, the
larger the investment of transnational corporation in a given country is, the greater the economic
dependence of the host State becomes. In this respect, powerful TNCs may demand from weaker
States favorable concessions regarding minimum wages, security measures, limitations in
technology transfers, taxation, and others. Similarly, the larger the democratic deficit of less
developed countries public governance, the more likely it is that corruption will be rife and
pressure to sustain the particular investment status will be maintained. The transnational
corporation will likewise apply significant pressure to the home State in order to achieve the
same results at an inter- governmental level,50 to win contracts, and/or to promote a political
regime that will safeguard the interests of the subsidiary in the host State. On a more global
level, it has been transnational corporations that have persistently lobbied industrialized States
toward trade liberalization through the lifting of tariffs and domestic subsidies. 51 The framework
for determining what human rights issues are linked to transnational corporations is addressed
through the UN Secretary-Generals Global Compact launched in Davos in 1999. Some authors
call these scopes as the core Corporate Social Responsibility Principles. 52 The Global Compact
has identified responsibilities of transnational corporations related to human rights in broad
aspect in connection with two principles:
Principle One: transnational corporations should support and respect the protection of
internationally proclaimed human rights;
Principle Two: transnational corporations should make sure that they are not complicit in
human rights abuses.

The UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business

Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights
On August 13 2003, the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of
Human Rights approved the Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and
Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as the Norms)
in its Resolution 2003/16. The Norms represent a landmark step in holding businesses
accountable for their human rights abuses and constitute a succinct, but comprehensive,
restatement of the international legal principles applicable to transnational corporations with
49

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Business and Human Rights: A Progress Report,
January 2000, p. 15.
50
Arvind Ganesan: Human Rights, the Energy Industry, and the Relationship with Home
Governments, in Asbjrn Eide, Helge Ole Bergesen & Pia Rudolfson Goyer (eds.): Human
Rights and the Oil Industry, Intersentia, 2000, p. 15.
51
Vivien A. Schmidt: The New World Order, Incorporated: The Rise of Business and the
Decline of the Nation State, Daedalus, Vol. 124, No. 2 (1995).
52
Ilias Bantekas: Corporate Social Responsibility in International Law, Boston University
International Law Journal, Vol. 309 (2004), p. 25.

regard to human rights, humanitarian law, international labour law, environmental law, consumer
law, anticorruption law, and so forth. In fact, the Norms are the first non-voluntary initiative
accepted at the international level. The Norms attempt to impose direct responsibilities on
transnational corporations as a means of reaching comprehensive protection of all human rights
civil, cultural, economic, political and social. Thus these Norms constitute an attempt in filling
the gap in understanding the expectations on transnational corporations in relation to human
rights.53 The Norms not only reflect and restate a wide range of human rights, labour,
humanitarian, environmental, consumer protection, and anticorruption legal principles, but also
incorporate best practices for corporate social responsibility. Besides, the Norms do not endeavor
to freeze standards by drawing on past drafting efforts and present practices; they incorporate
and encourage further evolution. The Norms appear to be more comprehensive and more
focused on human rights than any of the international legal or voluntary codes of conduct drawn
up by the ILO, the OECD, the European Parliament, the UN Global Compact, trade groups,
individual companies, unions, NGOs, and others. The Norms and Commentary provide for the
right to equality of opportunity and treatment; the right to security of persons; the rights of
workers, including a safe and healthy work environment and the right to collective bargaining;
respect for international, national, and local laws and the rule of law; a balanced approach to
intellectual property rights and responsibilities; transparency and avoidance of corruption;
respect for the right to health, as well as other economic, social, and cultural rights; other civil
and political rights, such as freedom of movement; consumer protection; and environmental
protection. With respect to each of those subjects, the Norms largely reflect, restate, and refer to
existing international norms, in addition to specifying some basic methods for implementation.

53

Report of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, cit.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Literature:
1. Haffer M., Karaszewski W., Czynniki wzrostu gospodarczego, UMK, Toru
2004.
2. The Least developed countries report 2009, United Nations, New York and
Genewa 2009.
3. World Investment Report 1994. Transnational Corporations Employment
and the Workplace, UnitedNations, New York and Geneva 1994.
4. World Investment Report 2000, Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions and
Development, UNCTAD, New York and Genewa 2000.
5. World Investment Report 2005, Transnational Corporation and the
Internationalization of R&D, UNCTAD, New York and Genewa 2005.
6. World Investment Report 2006. FDI from Developing and Transition
Economies.
Implication for Development, UNCTAD, New York and Genewa 2006.
7. World Investment Report. Transnational Corporations, Agricultural
Production and
Development, UNCTAD, New York and Genewa 2009.
Internet sources:
1. www.stats.unctad.org/FDI/ dn. 27.04.2010.

2. www.unctad.org/fdistatistics, dn. 27.04.2010.

3.http://www.unctad.org/templates/webflyer.asp?
docid=11917&intItemID=1528&lang
BOOKS REFERRED
International trade law- DR. S.R. Myneni
International trade law by Smith Hoff

INDEX
TNCs- Introduction
Need for the U.N. norms
Brief history of TNCs
Problems arising from TNCs
TNCs and International politics
TNCs Human health and Environment
TNCs and Occupational safety
TNCs and Employement
Definition
Legal issues
TNCs- The development
Role of TNCs in international trade
Role of TNCs with regard to human rights

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Before I start off on this endeavor that has been given to me as the
INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW project in the FIFTH semester of this joyful ride
that I have undertaken under the flagship of The Faculty of Law, Jamia Millia
Islamia, I would like to thank everybody who has been instrumental in my
successful completion of my projects.
First, I would like to acknowledge the immense contribution that my teacher
of international trade law has had on this project. By creating the basic
framework of the subject in my mind through his excellent lectures he also
contributed in the creation of the basic framework and limitations of my topic
in my mind.
Next, it would be my duty to thank the excellent library staff in the Faculty of
Law, Jamia Millia Islamia for their never ending readiness to help anyone in
finding exact readings for any such subject that he/she is researching.
Lastly, I would like to thank my classmates who never backed off when I
needed them to clarify any concept that I couldnt catch during the process
of the class.

-IRAM PEERZADA

CERTIFICATE
(2015-16)

THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT MOHD. ADIL OF B.A.LL.B.

Semester V HAS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED THE PROJECT
ON THE TOPIC TNCs- DEFINITION, ROLE AND SCOPE
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF MISS AKRITI MATHUR
DATE:PLACE:-

DECLARATION
I, IRAM PEERZADA, STUDENT OF B.A.LL.B.(Hons.)
SEMESTER V AT JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA HEREBY DECLARE
THAT THAT THE INFORMATION GIVEN IN MY PROJECT IS
TRUE AND ORIGINAL TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE.
YOURS FAITHFULLY
IRAM PEERZADA

DECLARATION
I, MOHD. ADIL, STUDENT OF B.A.LL.B.(Hons.) SEMESTER V
AT JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA HEREBY DECLARE THAT THAT THE
INFORMATION GIVEN IN MY PROJECT IS TRUE AND
ORIGINAL TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE.
YOURS FAITHFULLY
MOHD. ADIL