Dignity, Corporate Political Responsibility, and Business Legitimacy

Abstract

In this chapter, we argue that there are good reasons for ascribing human rights duties and other duties of justice to transnational corporations. We do so by basing duties of justice on human dignity. Though a contested idea, human dignity provides a sound basis for grounding all duties of justice on one common concept as well as linking the argument to current political and legal discourse. Our argument is that corporations are not only private economic actors that act within a certain political and judicial framework, but they proactively play a part in shaping the legal framework that governs their economic activities. Because they are political actors, it is reasonable to ascribe not only negative duties to respect human rights but also stronger duties to protect to them when they operate outside sufficiently just states. But even if states are sufficiently just, it is a mistake to think that no duties of justice remain for corporations, since at all times there is the duty to follow the spirit and not only the letter of the law. Moreover, because legal systems are only more or less just, there is room for improving justice beyond what the law requires. Finally, we draw the conclusion that corporations’ license to operate depends on their fulfillment of their dignity-based duties and that if they do not fulfill their duties sufficiently, it is legitimate and maybe even mandatory to withdraw their license to operate.