Corporate Human Rights Responsibilities: Rethinking the Public-Private Divide

ABSTRACT This framing paper to the special issue deals with one of the key human rights challenges today: the effective regulation of business in a globalized economy and the expansion of the roles corporate actors play beyond the private realm. It discusses three ideal-typical approaches to the public-private divide that characterizes the human rights responsibilities of corporations. First, the dichotomy approach is based on a classic dichotomous view, emphasizing the essential differences between public human rights duties and private actors’ responsibilities. Second, the blurring approach challenges this dichotomy by blurring or erasing the boundaries between public and private. The third approach, which is called the mediation approach and is elaborated in this framing paper, responds to the strengths and weaknesses of the dichotomy and the blurring approaches. It, too, challenges the public-private dichotomy, but does so by taking into consideration the mutual constitution of the two categories. At the same time it keeps them distinct rather than blending them together. This approach acknowledges the added value of conceptually, empirically, and normatively distinguishing between public and private, while taking the limitations of a dichotomous view into account. It thus provides new avenues for rethinking corporate responsibilities for human rights within and beyond the public-private divide.