Do recent Court of Appeal decisions create a 'Catch
22'?
Since 2017, the Court of Appeal has handed down judgment in
three landmark cases, which involve cases brought against English
multinationals by victims of human rights impacts, related to the
operations of their overseas subsidiaries.
The cases bring in to sharp focus the question of a parent
company’s liability for the acts and omissions of its
subsidiaries. This article considers what this means for English
domiciled companies and how they manage human rights related risk
throughout their operations.
Three cases
In Vedanta (Lungowe and Ors. v Vedanta PLC and Anor. [2017]
EWCA Civ 1528), a group of Zambian farmers brought claims
against Vedanta Resources PLC and its Zambian subsidiary in
relation to environmental damage allegedly caused by pollution from
mines in northern Zambia. The Court of Appeal upheld the High
Court’s decision to accept jurisdiction, rejecting
Vedanta’s challenge and finding that
