Parents, look after your daughters!

The issue of how to hold Multinational Corporations liable for human rights abuses and environmental damages committed abroad is subject to wide discussion in legal literature. The focus of this work rests on a recent decision of the District Court of The Hague in the case Akpan v. Shell, where a Nigerian farmer sued the parent company of the Multinational Corporation Shell in the Netherlands for human rights abuses and environmental damages committed by its Nigerian subsidiary in Nigeria. The decision of the Dutch court stands for a newly emerging trend in Europe of holding Multinational Corporations, headquartered in Europe, liable in their respective home states for their harmful conducts abroad.