This edited volume challenges the territorial bias of traditional human rights law, in which human rights obligations are in principle incumbent on the territorial state. The first part of this volume examines the current state of the extraterritorial human rights obligations of international financial institutions, looking in particular at the ways in which they address questions of attribution and distribution of obligations (and responsibility for violations). The second part is geared towards the identification of common principles that may underpin a human rights legal regime that incorporates obligations of extraterritorial states as well as of non-state actors. Each chapter examines novel and forward-looking perspectives in the field, and explores how the findings may apply across international human rights law in a multi duty-bearer setting.
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Human rights have traditionally been framed in a vertical perspective with the duties of States confined to their own citizens or residents. Interpretations of international human rights treaties tend either to ignore or downplay obligations beyond this ‘territorial space’. This edited volume challenges the territorial bias of mainstream human rights law. It argues that with increased globalisation and the impact of international corporations, organisations and non-State actors, human rights law will become less relevant if it fails to adapt to changing realities in which States are no longer the only leading actor. Bringing together leading scholars in the field, the book explores potential applications of international human rights law in a multi-duty bearer setting. The first part of the book examines the current state of the human rights obligations of foreign States, corporations and international financial institutions, looking in particular at the ways in which they address questions of attribution and distribution of obligations and responsibility. The second part is geared towards the identification of common principles that may underpin a human rights legal regime that incorporates obligations of foreign States as well as of non-State actors.As a marker of important progress in understanding what lies ahead for integrating foreign States and non-State actors in the human rights dutybearer regime, this book will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners of international human rights law, public international law and international relations.
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