This book puts the current demand for new legal mechanisms to hold corporations accountable for violations of human rights in its historical, political and legal context. In so doing, it deepens our understanding of the challenges facing international human rights law in addressing corporate violations of human rights. Raising possibilities for destabilising the power of the corporation and demanding accountability not only from corporations but also from the governments that grant corporations rights to act, this book will be of great use to scholars engaged in legal and human rights studies, sociology, criminology, politics, IR, conflict resolution, anthropology and history.