Horizontal Effect of Human Rights in the Era of Transnational Constellations: On the Accountability of Private Actors for Human Rights Violations

Abstract

This article discusses the horizontal effect of human rights and proposes a new and unconventional approach to the accountability of private actors for human rights violations. It argues that current theoretical and doctrinal approaches are not able to provide adequately for the protection of human rights, as these approaches are underpinned by state-centric perspectives of law and classical theoretical concepts of human rights. The article aims to highlight the gap in accountability that exists within international and national law as well as the weaknesses of the existing theoretical and doctrinal approaches. It proposes a new concept for the horizontal effect of fundamental human rights borrowing elements from systems-theory, especially from the work of Gunther Teubner. Finally, this article demonstrates the practicability of this concept.