Date of Award
2022
Publication Type
Thesis
Degree Name
LL.M.
Department
Faculty of Law
Keywords
Canadian corporations, Extractive industries, Human rights, Justiciability, Third World
Supervisor
S.Xavier
Supervisor
I.Ceric
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Your phone, the car you drive, the bicycle you ride, the aircraft you fly, and the computer with which you are reading this thesis most likely contains minerals extracted from a mine in a Third World State where Canadian corporations are routinely implicated in human rights violations. This thesis explores whether these human rights violations committed by Canadian corporations in the extractive industries of Third World states are justiciable in Canadian courts. Based on an empirical review of caselaw between 2000 to 2020, I argue that the justiciability of all human rights violations committed in this context is not yet resolved even after Nevsun. I demonstrate the plausibility of this conclusion by making two arguments in this thesis. The first argument is that Nevsun has only resolved the contention regarding the justiciability of violations based on jus cogens and Customary International Law norms. The contention regarding the justiciability of non-jus cogens and non-CIL violations is not yet settled. The justiciability of these other violations depends on the judicial philosophy and politics of the presiding Justice. After reviewing Canadian legislative history regarding the justiciability of these violations, I found that there is currently no legislative input toward resolving the existing contention because all the private member bills targeted at the resolution of the controversy regarding the justiciability of these violations have been defeated in the Canadian Parliament. Therefore, my second argument is that only a government bill, created through executive and legislative synergy for Parliamentary approval, can ensure the justiciability of all human rights violations committed by Canadian corporations in the extractive industries of Third World states.
Recommended Citation
Alabi, Samsudeen Olalekan, "Canadian Corporations, Human Rights Violations and Third World Extractive Industries: Justiciability in Canada?" (2022). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 8920.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/8920