State Responsibility for Corporate Conduct: A Critique of Structural Bias in International Law in Reference to the Barcelona Traction Case

The purpose of writing this paper is to understand and analyse the complex intricacies involved in holding States accountable for the actions of State Owned Enterprises (SOE’s) and Private Trans National Corporations working directly under the garb of the concerned state due to the economic power disparity. This paper aims to delve into International Laws governing state responsibility for corporations and the elements that need to be satisfied to attribute the actions of these enterprises and corporations to a particular state and how that varies depending on the status of the State in the international order. Furthermore, it is also important to understand whether these norms of international state responsibility of corporations take into consideration the gross economic disparity between the economically stronger and economically weaker states and the consequences that has on state attribution and diplomatic protection offered to these State Owned Enterprises and Trans National Corporations working within the ambit of a particular state. We will start by critiquing the Barcelona Traction Case, arguing that it ignored the significant economic differences between Belgium and Spain, and in doing so, reinforced existing power imbalances in international law that tend to favour more economically powerful states, typically those from the Global North. Finally, the research methodology followed in this paper to substantiate the answer the questions posed above will take a legal-doctrinal approach, which aims to interpret, analyse and critique texts of international law governing state responsibility and relevant judicial precedent of Barcelona Traction.