ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses that process from the perspective of MNEs as non-state actors. It begins, in Section I, with a discussion of the effect of the absence of full legal personality for corporations. It goes on to show, in Section II, how this is in practice irrelevant to the ability of states to develop regulatory norms but that the main obstacle to doing so is the influence that corporate interests themselves exert upon the development of international law by states and IGOs. In order to explain this development it is first necessary briefly to trace the more recent discussions of the issue before UN human rights bodies. The chapter has sought to offer a brief overview of the question whether MNEs have a role to play in the development of international law, notwithstanding their lack of formal legal personality.
