In January 2013, The Hague District Court in the Netherlands rendered a groundbreaking verdict in a civil liability suit against Royal Dutch Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary (SPDC). The lawsuit had been brought before it by four Nigerian farmers and the Dutch NGO Milieudefensie , in response to a number of oil-spill incidents from SPDC-operated pipelines in the Nigerian Niger Delta. Although the majority of the claims were dismissed, the district court in its ruling did grant one claim that related to spills from an abandoned wellhead, ordering SPDC to pay compensation for the resulting loss. This judgment has international relevance, as this Dutch Shell Nigeria case forms part of a worldwide trend towards foreign direct liability cases. Growing numbers of similar lawsuits have been brought before the courts in other Western societies, but judgments on the merits have so far remained scarce. The relevance of the case has further increased with the US Supreme Court’s April 2013 ruling in the case of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. , which has significantly limited the scope of the Alien Tort Statute. This article explores The Hague District Court’s decision in the Dutch Shell Nigeria case, and places the case within the socio-legal context of the contemporary trend towards foreign direct liability cases, the international debates on corporate accountability and business & human rights, and the Supreme Court's judgment in the Kiobel case.

The Future of Foreign Direct Liability? Exploring the International Relevance of the Dutch Shell Nigeria Case

Till date, the enforcement of international human rights law has been relied largely on judicial remedies at the national level. This is more specifically for corporate human rights violation cases where a remedy mechanism to hold transnational corporations (TNCs) directly liable at the international level is absent. Transnational litigation has been increasingly utilized by victims of corporate-related human rights violations in seeking remedies. However, human rights litigation against TNCs in foreign countries has not been a simple process for the victims. Therefore, a special legal framework is urgently needed to guarantee not only victims’ right to access to a judicial mechanism but also their right to an effective remedy. This article proposed cooperation between home and host countries to authorize court jurisdiction in order to provide greater access to judicial remedy for victims of TNCs’ human rights violations. It presented the possibility for this cooperation to materialize through bilateral investment treaties.
	
	Key words: Transnational litigation, bilateral investment treaties, human rights, transnational corporations.

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Barriers to transnational human rights litigation against transnational corporations (TNCs): The need for cooperation between home and host countries

This article explores the political and legal feasibility of foreign direct liability cases that are brought before courts in the EU Member States.

Crossing the Atlantic? The Political and Legal Feasibility of European Foreign Direct Liability Cases

In this issue of Academic Emergency Medicine, Schoenfeld et al. report a qualitative analysis of Shared decision-making (SDM) from the perspective of Emergency Department (ED) patients. Shared decision-making is \"a collaborative process in which patients and providers make health care decisions together, taking into account the best evidence available, as well as the patient's values and preferences.\" Drawing on this definition, the investigators in this study explored the degree to which ED patients desired to be involved in SDM, as well as perceived facilitators and barriers to SDM. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/acem.13415

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.

.............................................................................................................................. 4 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 5 The existing standards for the accountability of business enterprises for human rights abuses .................................................................................................................................. 7 International human rights treaties.................................................................................. 7 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 7 Case-law under the European Convention on Human Rights .................................... 8 European Social Charter ............................................................................................... 19 Bioethics ....................................................................................................................... 20 Data Protection.............................................................................................................. 20 Criminal responsibility of business enterprises ............................................................ 21 Civil suits against business enterprises ......................................................................... 23 United States of America .......................................................................................... 23 Europe ....................................................................................................................... 29 Conclusions on existing standards ................................................................................ 31 Action by international organisations and institutions...................................................... 33 United Nations .............................................................................................................. 33 UN Global Compact ................................................................................................. 34 Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Guiding Principles) ............... 35 International Labour Organisation (ILO) .................................................................. 37 Children’s Rights and Business Principles ............................................................... 38 1 Professor at the Europainstitut of the University of Saarbrücken and Head of the Human Rights Policy and Development Department, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law, Council of Europe. This report was written in a strictly personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the Council of Europe.

Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights : Challenges and Opportunities for Europe and Japan

This report describes the questions a Dutch civil court will ask in assessing the liability of a Dutch legal person for involvement in the violation of fundamental, internationally recognised rights. It focuses more specifically on the liability of a Dutch legal person for subsidiaries operating abroad.

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The legal liability of Dutch parent companies for subsidiaries’ involvement in violations of fundamental, internationally recognised rights

From here to eternity : the proposal for a regulation on a European Sales Law (CESL), Recensie van Reiner Schulze (ed.), Common European Sales Law (CESL) : commentary

Technologische en demografische ontwikkelingen maken het voor het midden- en kleinbedrijf (mkb1) noodzakelijk om werkprocessen continu te verbeteren en structureel te innoveren. Het vraagt van het hele bedrijf en haar medewerkers om continu alert te blijven op nieuwe kansen en uitdagingen. Een integrale leercultuur ontwikkelen is daarvoor essentieel. Veel mkb-bedrijven worstelen echter met het vormgeven van zo’n leercultuur. In dit artikel maken we inzichtelijk welke zes bouwstenen essentieel zijn voor de ontwikkeling van een leercultuur binnen het mkb: (1) inhoud van werk, (2) ruimte en veiligheid, (3) samenwerken en teamontwikkeling, (4) leiderschap, (5) organisatie inrichting en (6) externe omgeving. Vervolgens laten we zien hoe deze bouwstenen benut worden binnen het mkb op basis van 36 interviews binnen tien mkb-bedrijven. Zo is er bijvoorbeeld sprake van een opbouw van relatief simpel naar meer complex werk, waardoor leren mogelijk wordt gemaakt. Hoewel leidinggevenden, HR-professionals en medewerkers in het mkb hun ervaringen met de praktische invulling van leren en ontwikkelen binnen het mkb hebben laten zien, lijkt het vormen van een leercultuur niet altijd integraal aangepakt te worden. Bedrijven hebben ervaringen met alle bouwstenen, maar die lijken niet altijd bewust ingezet en ontworpen te worden. Hierdoor worden kansen op leren niet optimaal benut. We sluiten dit artikel daarom af met aanbevelingen die HR-professionals in het mkb kunnen gebruiken om de leercultuur binnen hun bedrijf systematisch en bewust vorm te geven en zodoende leren en ontwikkelen te optimaliseren binnen het mkb. 

Bouwstenen van een integrale leercultuur

After a tragic event, breaking news, headlines from newspapers and opinion papers often start with a twofold question: First: what really happened? And second: who was at fault or who is to blame? Sometimes, these questions do not get a clear and convincing answer. Let us illustrate this with the following event, which was commemorated on the 14 July 2015, during the drafting process of this article. In 1865, one hundred and fifty years ago, an international expedition of French, Swiss and English climbers conquered the Matterhorn, the well-known mountain that reigns in splendid isolation above Zermatt, in the Swiss Pennine Alps. During the descent, the English climber Douglas Hadow, who afterwards was considered as the most inexperienced of the group, ‘knocked over his aid and foot placer, the Chamonix guide Michel Croz. The next man up the rope, the Rev. Charles Hudson, was dragged from his feet and so, in turn, was Lord Francis Douglas. All of them fell to their deaths. Only three people survived the tragedy: the Englishman Edward Whymper and the two Zermatt guides Old Peter and Young Peter Taugwalder, because the Englishman and Old Peter had planted themselves firmly to try and take the strain, but the thinner rope Old Peter had tied between himself and Douglas broke midway between the two.’ After the tragedy, a persistent discussion arose about the mistakes that had been made during the descent. For instance, in the Alpine Journal, Arnold Lunn, a famous English climber, wrote about the tragedy:

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J.A. van der Weide

Papers

The legal liability of Dutch parent companies for subsidiaries’ involvement in violations of fundamental, internationally recognised rights

From here to eternity : the proposal for a regulation on a European Sales Law (CESL), Recensie van Reiner Schulze (ed.), Common European Sales Law (CESL) : commentary

Bouwstenen van een integrale leercultuur

Harmonising tort law : exploring the concept of fault