Impact of Business and Human Rights Litigation: Transnational Perspectives

This panel brings together an international group of scholars and practitioners to examine the transnational dimensions of business and human rights (BHR) litigation. Featuring theoretical insights from scholars in Canada and Australia who have explored conceptual debates in assessing the impact of litigation, the discussion also highlights practical case studies from Bangladesh and the Congo. Combining these diverse perspectives, the panel offers a thoughtful exploration of how BHR litigation operates across borders, its effectiveness as a tool for human rights and environmental accountability and the factors shaping its outcomes. 

Dr Ebony Birchall, Lecturer at Macquarie University, Australia, is an academic and human rights lawyer who specialises in strategic litigation. She is the Deputy Director of the BHR Access to Justice Lab and runs a strategic litigation clinic teaching law students to develop human rights cases. Her recent publications include a report on the impact of strategic litigation on corporate behaviour with Professor Surya Deva and Professor Justine Nolan. Her litigation practice has been at the forefront of Australian-based strategic litigation over the past decade. Notable cases include the Manus Island Class Action, reportedly Australia’s largest human rights case at the time of resolution, which resulted in the Australian Government and several businesses held liable for AU$90million in compensation and costs. She also acted for almost 10,000 people from refugee backgrounds in the 2014 Immigration Data Breach Litigation, the first time compensation has been achieved for a mass privacy breach under Australian privacy legislation. 

Taqbir Huda is a human rights lawyer who most recently served as a South Asia Regional Researcher at Amnesty International, where he investigated and documented state violations of human rights in Bangladesh, including the unlawful use of force by security forces against protesters. Taqbir has led research and advocacy for several human rights organisations in Bangladesh, and helped draft over ten public interest litigation cases challenging violations of fundamental rights filed before the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, including one filed in connection with the Rana Plaza collapse and one challenging the inadequacy of compensation standards for occupational injuries and deaths under the existing labour laws in Bangladesh. He has also served as a consultant on a range of human rights issues for the ILO, Equality Now, Asia Justice Coalition and Ipas. Taqbir graduated top of his class in law from SOAS, University of London and then completed an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice with distinction from the University of Oxford. He is currently an LLM Candidate at Harvard Law School and he uses his column with The Daily Star (the largest English newspaper in Bangladesh) titled ‘Justice in Practice’ to push for accountability and legal reform.

Dr Anaïs Tobalagba is a Researcher at Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID) and a Visiting Researcher at the NOVA Centre on Business, Human Rights and the Environment. She conducts field and desk research on the human rights and environmental impacts of extractive industries in Africa, the business and human rights (BHR) aspects of the global transition to cleaner energies, human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) regulation, and the gender dimensions of BHR. Anaïs also consults with businesses and a range of stakeholders providing training on BHR frameworks and HREDD. Anaïs holds a Ph.D. in International Human Rights Law from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). 

Professor William S. Dodge is Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at the George Washington University Law School. He is currently a Reporter for the second phase of the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Fourth) of Foreign Relations Law and serves as a member of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Law. He previously served as Counselor on International Law to the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State from 2011 to 2012 and as a Reporter for the first phase of the Restatement (Fourth) of Foreign Relations Law. He is Founding Editor of the Transnational Litigation Blog (www.tlblog.org), where he writes about human rights litigation and lots of other things. Professor Dodge became involved in litigation under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) as a student in a human rights clinic at Yale Law School in 1991. He wrote the amicus brief in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain (2004) that the U.S. Supreme Court followed in recognizing a cause of action under the ATS. At the State Department, he worked on the amicus briefs of the United States government in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum (2013). And he also filed amicus briefs supporting plaintiffs in Jesner v. Arab Bank (2018) and Nestlé U.S.A. v. Doe (2021).

Dr Katya Aristova is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights.