Globalization and Actor sequitur forum rei

Alles Shein und nicht Sein, the protection of the human rights of third States before the European courts and the United Kingdom

Abstract

This article presents a selection of recent examples of transnational litigation against European and British companies for human rights violations. In the United Kingdom, after a decade marked by convictions of multinationals for acts occurring in third states, we observe the resurrection of the Brexit-blessed forum non conviniens. Meanwhile, in the European Union, after some first resounding and unsuccessful attempts, we are looking for a regulatory solution that is difficult to fit in practice and which ignores Private International Law. This study focuses on the Vedanta, Begum, Dyson and Kik cases. All of them, cases in which serious human rights violations have been found and which in the worst case, Rana Plaza, have claimed more than thousand lives, whereas a European Union driven by ESG, Corporate Responsibility and Business Ethics being unable to provide a response to this drama.