GLOBALIZED SOCIETY – FRAGMENTED JUSTICE. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS BY “PRIVATE” TRANSNATIONAL ACTORS

Abstract

The disastrous AIDS epidemic, the numbers killed by which worldwide have overtaken those of the dead in all civil wars of the 90s, took a special turn in South Africa with the legal case “Hazel Tau vs. Glaxo and Boehringer”. The case translates the multidimensional social issues into the narrower quaestiones juris: has the pricing policy of transnational pharmaceutical enterprises violated fundamental human rights? Can AIDS patients assert their right to life directly against transnational corporations? Does “Access to Medication as a Human Right” exist in the private sector? More generally, do fundamental rights obligate not only States, but also private transnational actors directly?