ABSTRACT
Some of the biggest companies worldwide have their headquarters or legal seats in European States. Through their activities, they can cause violations of human rights overseas. This risk is evidenced by the increasing number of civil and criminal proceedings brought before European courts against European corporations (including their subsidiaries) for acts committed in non-European countries. Transnational litigation is the avenue chosen by non-European victims of corporate-related human rights abuses when local courts in the host states cannot provide redress, or when actual reparation and justice requires the implication of the European parent company. The aim of this chapter is to determine the extent of potential judicial action in European states regarding human rights litigation involving European companies and third-country claimants, with a special attention to the criminal avenue.
