Abstract
The accountability of multinational oil corporations (hereafter MNCs) for environmental and human rights violations remains critical in international law, particularly in jurisdictions with weak regulatory enforcement in West Africa. This dissertation provides a comprehensive analysis of the role of Western courts in addressing corporate accountability, focusing on primarily the oil industry in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. It examines key legal frameworks, including the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Hereafter UNGPs), as well as landmark judicial rulings such as Vedanta Resources Plc v. Lungowe [2019] UKSC 20. This study also highlights the challenges associated with extraterritorial corporate liability, including jurisdictional limitations, economic interests, and the fragmented nature of enforcement mechanisms. It further explores the contrasting stance of jurisdictions such as the United States, where legal frameworks remain less receptive to corporate liability claims and the UK and the Netherlands, where courts seem more willing to help. Findings reveal that while European courts have increasingly imposed obligations on parent companies for the actions of their subsidiaries abroad, though with caution, enforcement remains inconsistent due to non-binding international frameworks and voluntary corporate commitments. This dissertation, therefore, contributes to the ongoing discourse on corporate responsibility by evaluating the strengths and limitations of current legal approaches and proposing potential reforms to enhance accountability mechanisms in international law.