The market of impunity: Why is international law fit for the job

This paper aims to demonstrate that corporations can be prosecuted under international law for forcing people to work in sweatshops. Indeed, as corporations are subject of international law they are subjected to international norms and should respect them. There is an emerging consensus about holding corporations liable for their human rights abuses. Submitting people to sweatshops conditions is one of the many ways corporations infringe human rights. In the worst cases, sweatshops fit the modern definition of slavery and slave-like practices such as forced labour. Corporations ought to be prosecuted either domestically using universal jurisdiction or at an international level for using forced labour. In doing so, the international community would send a strong message that sweatshops are unacceptable and eliminating them would certainly help eradicating poverty.