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50 Ariz. St. L.J. 431 (2018)
Extractive Industries and Inequality: Intersections of Environmental Law, Human Rights, and Environmental Justice

handle is hein.journals/arzjl50 and id is 447 raw text is: EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES AND INEQUALITY: Intersections of Environmental Law, Human Rights, and Environmental Justice Sumudu Atapattu* INTRODUCTION From Shell Oil in Ogoniland, Nigeria to Chevron in Ecuador, and from Bhopal, India to Freeport-McMoRan in Indonesia, the world is replete with examples of corporate excesses and impunity. Time and time again we hear of gross human rights violations and severe environmental degradation associated with multinational corporations operating in developing countries. Extractive industries are just one category of businesses guilty of these excesses. International law has long sought to control the activities of these multinational companies with little success. Several attempts at adopting hard law by the United Nations (UN) were vetoed by developed countries. International law does not technically govern the activities of these companies-they are not states. However, they operate at the international level (more accurately in the grey zone between international law and national law) and are often more influential and powerful than many developing states. This power asymmetry has resulted in human rights violations, environmental degradation, and often impunity for their actions. At the same time, several movements have emerged as a response to these violations, resulting in many corporations themselves voluntarily accepting codes of conduct and other standards of behavior. These include corporate social responsibility,' the Equator Principles,2 and the UN Guiding Principles * Director, Research Centers, University of Wisconsin Law School; Lead Counsel, Human Rights, Center for International Sustainable Development Law and Affiliate Professor, Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights, Sweden. The original version of this paper was presented at the Rapport Center for Human Rights and Justice, University of Texas at Austin in September 2016. The author is grateful to Professor Dan Brinks for the invitation and the students who commented on the paper. 1. See Corporate Social Responsibility, INVESTOPEDIA, http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corp-social-responsibility.asp (last visited Feb. 8, 2018). 2. EQUATOR PRINCIPLES, http://www.equator-principles.com/ (last visited Feb. 8, 2018).

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