Acceptance of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights enshrined in Pillar II of the UNGPs and the need for access to effective remedy in Pillar III have developed alongside an escalating trend toward the recognition of a duty of care based on control or superior knowledge in recent case law. Vedanta affirms the emergent doctrine of parent liability established in Chandler v Cape Plc [2012] EWCA Civ 525 and Thompson v The Renwick Group Plc [2014] EWCA Civ 635 and introduces the possibility that a parent may owe a duty not only to the employees of a subsidiary, but beyond.
Simon LJ’s obiter remarks in Vedanta confirm that liability may extend where there is direct responsibility or control over the human rights impacts of another corporate entity. This trend in the jurisprudence, which aligns with the principles set out in the UNGPs, could potentially extend beyond the corporate group and into the supply chain. While liability will ultimately turn on twitter database whether “the pleading reflects the actuality”, on the current state of the case law, a parent company with active control over its global operations is increasingly less likely to be in a position to exclude liability through complex corporate structures and reliance on separate corporate personality.
The development of a global body of case law in this area has been slow, given that most claims of this nature settle. The significance of Simon LJ’s obiter remarks lie in the fact that should Vedanta settle, or should the claimants fail on the facts, future claimants may take confidence that such a duty of care may exist, that the law is open to extension of the parent duty of care, and that UK courts are willing to take an expansive approach to jurisdiction in line with trends in the global jurisprudence.
The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) and Norton Rose Fulbright are currently undertaking a research project on the law and practice of Human Rights Due Diligence in Supply Chains.