This master’s thesis addresses the issue of the liability of multinational companies for environmental damage. Multinational companies are private organisational structures with a dispersed structure, which derive their profits from the search for cost-effective locations. This is where the problem arises, because it is most cost-effective for companies to operate in countries with poor human rights and poor environmental protection legislation, or in countries that do not put their legislation into practice. The author discusses the existence of possible international mechanisms that could remedy the absence of legal mechanisms in the countries described above and the general issue of the liability of international companies for environmental damage and the human rights that are necessarily linked to it. The master’s thesis provides an overview of some of the more topical problems of establishing accountability, whether international companies are or can become subjects of international law, and whether international law can impose direct obligations on international companies despite the absence of subjectivity. Furthermore, the master’s thesis examines the international mechanisms governing the liability of international companies. The thesis addresses both legal liabilities, i.e. whether there are legal mechanisms for human rights violations and environmental damage, and the social liability of multinational companies, which are often financially and even politically more powerful than some states.
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