Book Launch: Fundamental Rights and the Legal Obligations of Business by Prof. David Bilchitz

DATE: 16 February 2022 
TIME:  17h00—19h00 South African time (GMT+2)
Location: Online Seminar

To register, please visit: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/events/book-launch-fundamental-rights-and-legal-obligations-business

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About the author:

David Bilchitz is a Professor of Fundamental Rights and Constitutional Law at the University of Johannesburg and a Professor of Law at the University of Reading. He is also director of the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (SAIFAC) and Vice-President of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL). Prof Bilchitz is the chief organiser of the World Congress of Constitutional Law (to be held in Johannesburg between 5-9 December 2022).

Discussants

• Prof Danwood Chirwa (Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Cape Town)

• Prof Bonita Meyersfeld (Human Rights Lawyer and Associate Professor at the Wits Law School)

• Prof Stephen Gardbaum (Stephen Yeazell Endowed Chair in Law and Faculty Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law)

About the book:

In his book, Professor David Bilchitz engages with the relatively neglected question of how to determine in law the substantive content of corporate obligations with respect to fundamental rights. Drawing on existing legal models, he systematizes and develops a multi-factoral approach which involves recognising that no one principle or factor alone can determine corporate obligations. Outlining many of the factors that are most important, he shows how they condition obligations. Given the existence of multiple and competing factors, the final determination of obligations requires a balancing process such as proportionality. This process is familiar to those working on fundamental rights but requires specific adaptations to the context of the corporation (and non-state actors more generally).

During the discussion, Prof Bilchitz will outline the central tenets of the multi-factoral approach he develops in the book and the complexities involved in determining the content of positive and negative corporate obligations in law.