기업의 인권침해에 대한 법적 규제

Although quite a long time has passed since the mushrooming of corporate human rights abuses in the global community and the corresponding actions to address them, appropriate remedies for the victims are far from satisfactory and corporate impunity continues. This paper begins by showing why now is the high time to hold corporations legally accountable for human rights abuses, and then offers a variety of legislative proposals to the National Assembly of Korea. The justifications for legal measures to address corporate human rights abuses are made in many respects. 1) The sheer number and the severity of corporate human rights abuses in the global community including Korea urge us to take immediate actions with whatever means available. 2) Current measure to tackle corporate human rights abuses, which are mostly voluntaristic and soft law oriented, increasingly prove to be ineffective. 3) The international community, especially international NGOs and UN, begin to recommend legal approaches to corporate human rights abuses, with making tangible progress in drafting business and human rights treaty. 4) UN, especially the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its Final Opinion on the Korean government’s periodic report, recommended Korean government to take a legal approach to business and human right issues. And other justifications are added such as moral imperative, contribution to the global community, overcoming second-mover mindset and level playing field. Taking into consideration the academic literature, foreign statutes and judicial cases, and the Korean context, several urgent legislative proposals are offered, which include: 1) Public institutions (including state enterprises) should be obliged to perform human rights due diligence by statutes. 2) Listed companies should be required to disclose non-financial information, including human rights related information. 3) Non-judicial remediation through the Korea Nation Contact Point (NCP) of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the Korea Human Rights Commission should be strengthened. 4) The procedure of tort and criminal charge for human rights abuses committed by companies abroad should be made more accessible by victims. 5) Public procurement should be used to promote business and human rights. 6) A special act should be enacted to address ‘gross’ human rights abuses. At the last part are the simulations which show how the corporate human rights abuses would be addressed if all the proposals were to be adopted by the National Assembly.