Businesses are increasingly being evaluated by stakeholders on
the basis of their overall impact on the economy, the environment
and society, including on human rights. As scrutiny from
stakeholders grows, disputes relating to the human rights impacts
of business activities are likely to arise.
As we noted in our alert memorandum on "
Navigating the ESG Landscape,"
Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2020, a number of
jurisdictions have enacted legislation to strengthen transparency
on the environmental, social and governance
("ESG") implications of business
activities. Certain of these regimes provide for private rights of
action against companies.1
Whilst certain claimants have engaged in innovative litigation
strategies to bring human rights claims under existing tort and
contract legal regimes, 2 the emerging field of business
and human rights arbitration ("BHR
arbitration") provides a bespoke forum for the
settlement of disputes relating to the human
