ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the potential of domestic criminal law to hold internationally operating corporations legally accountable for the adverse effects of their cross-border activities. This is done by focusing on one particular human rights-related issue that has generated a lot of debate among NGOs, policymakers, and scholars recently: the issue of modern slavery. In addressing the potential of domestic criminal law in tackling the issue of modern slavery, the focus will be on Dutch law and the law of England and Wales. Accordingly, the question central to this chapter is whether and to what extent corporations have binding duties under Dutch and English/Welsch criminal law not to commit modern slavery in their cross-border activities. This chapter highlights that domestic criminal law can indeed offer an answer to this question in the case of modern slavery, but potentially also with regard to other transgressions. It can put duties on corporations not to commit modern slavery in their cross-border activities, these duties may also take the shape of duties of care, and domestic criminal law may even offer potential in addressing modern slavery in the supply chain. Thus, domestic criminal law can offer an interesting route to hold corporations legally accountable. However, these possibilities must first be taken up in practice, and therein lies an important task for among other lawmakers, policy makers, and legal practitioners.
