Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 2.7: International Processes and Complaints Mechanisms
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theoretically ethical self-regulation adopted by multinationals, has implied
a removal and suspension of the legal regulations which are developed
in order to regulate the actions of multinationals. Second, the principle
of voluntary self-regulation through the adoption, for example, of social
clauses to limit the scope of action of the transnational corporation has
entailed, as we have affirmed, a wide deregulation of the existing rules
and regulations in terms of human rights. Mechanisms such as corporate
social responsibility have resulted in the substitution of existing legal
norms by private agreements on the part of businesses, in relation to
human rights. The spirit of these regulations lies, as a last resort, on the
good will of multinationals to regulate themselves, their effectiveness
been subordinate to the needs or necessities of the companies. They
have replaced the law—the international law of human rights, among
others—with regulations which are not legally binding. In other words, a
substitution of public law for private law, which will be applied depending
on the good will of the parties involved to adopt an obligation. This has
resulted in a serious weakening of the public enforcement capacity over
the actions of transnational corporations. Therefore, the public interest,
governed until now by law, has been substituted for the private interest:
that of the transnational corporations.
Bearing in mind this framework, we will briefly explore the outline of the
responsibilities of transnational corporations in the international arena.
This way we will be able to better understand the above mentioned
difficulties and, from there, the reason behind, and aims of, this
essay.
The international regulatory regime, in relation to transnational
corporations, is composed of different regulations, guidelines and
standards related to each other and disseminated by all the international
mandamus. To clarify our perspective, we can differentiate between
two types of legal norms relative to multinationals: the first are those
orientated to regulate foreign investment, which are of great importance,
and which are not always taken into account to evaluate the actual
impacts of a project. The second are those which regulate the conduct
of multinationals in the development of their commercial activities,
those which compromise their activities and work methods. The latter
are those that set the behavior of multinational companies in relation to
social and environmental impact assessments, an issue which has to be
complemented with the analysis of the norms regarding investments as
two sides of the same coin.