ABSTRACT
The rise of business and human rights as a field of study has renewed the spotlight on corporations’ global operations. In the 1960s and 1970s, discussions regarding corporations at the international level tended to focus on their complex relationships with capital-importing developing states in the context of debates on the so-called New International Economic Order, and not on their human rights impact as such.1 Nationalisations and expropriations of foreign investors, and sovereignty of host states over their natural resources, were the key concerns of the time. Then came the 1980s and the 1990s, periods characterised by the spread of the economic liberalisation ideology. In practical terms, this has resulted in an exponential development of foreign direct investment, arguably fostered by the signature of hundreds of bilateral investment treaties (BITs), as well as in the purported destruction of all obstacles to international trade and the creation of a sophisticated organisation to help reach that goal, the World Trade Organization (WTO). Deregulation but also technological advances and new financial instruments have increasingly facilitated capital flow. As one author remarks,
because of these developments, investors, companies and financial services professionals enjoy more choices than ever as to where to set up their operations, and can participate in far-flung markets virtually anywhere, instantly, regardless of national origin and boundaries.2
