ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to address one possible objection against the political view of human rights, namely, that it cannot account for the role of transnational corporations (TNCs) as bearers of primary responsibilities for human rights. It offers an appealing construal of the political view, but the arguments it provides fall short of a full defence of it. The chapter also offers a sympathetic construal of the political view and specifically of its justification for identifying states as the primary bearers of the duties correlative to human rights. It considers debate about the role of TNCs in relation to human rights; and the conclusion that these corporate entities should bear human-rights duties by virtue of their de facto 'political role' is not a new one. The chapter builds on these contributions to show how the human-rights duties of TNCs may be justified from a perspective on human rights.
