Samenvatting

Recent court cases illustrate how harmful activities by Western multinational corporations can inflict vast harms on people and planet, mostly in non-Western communities. This article first proposes a model for potentially successful regulation of corporations that compromise human rights and the environment. This model is then applied to the cases of Shell in Nigeria, Soco International in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Veolia and HeidelbergCement in Occupied Palestinian Territories. The analyses show that the net of regulation can be closed in multiple ways. The case studies illustrate how civil society plays crucial roles in closing existing holes.