Since TNC activities are by their very definition transcending international borders, they are difficult to regulate by national authorities. Not only do states face practical regulatory difficulties, but they also face international legal limitations on the regulations of cross border activities, which make TNC activities a key challenge for contemporary international legal theory. In particular, the nationality principle limits the regulatory capabilities of states through the sovereignty of other states which is affected if TNCs operate broad through daughter corporations that are incorporated in the foreign states in which they operate. Such daughter companies are financially dependent on their mother which is incorporated in the state which seeks to regulate it but are legally independent, making it virtually impossible for the regulating state to influence them directly.
Therefore, there have been calls for international regulation of the TNA activities. It would go further beyond the purpose of this writing to go into the details of how international environmental law and worker’s rights. Suffice it to say that TNCs de lege lata already are burdened with the number of responsibilities under international law, although too many of them only enjoy the status of soft law, like the aforementioned Norms.
On he other hand, corporations do enjoy locus standi in several contexts, for example amici curie in the World Trade Organisation’s Dispute Settlement system since the shrimp/turtile case, as parties before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea but also as amici curie and /or parties before NAFTA Tribunals, ICSID tribunals, the European Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda.
