A/HRC/32/19 II. Private law claims by affected individuals and communities Principles for assessing corporate legal liability Policy objective 12: Domestic private law regimes that regulate the respect by business enterprises of human rights (“domestic private law regimes”) are sufficiently robust to ensure that there is both proper deterrence from and effective remedy in the event of business-related human rights abuses. 12.1 Domestic private law regimes: (a) provide the necessary coverage with respect to business-related human rights abuses; (b) ensure that there are causes of action for business-related human rights abuses corresponding appropriately to the varying degrees of severity and the different kinds of harm that can result from such abuse; and (c) are clear as to whether and the extent to which they impose legal obligations on companies. 12.2 Domestic private law regimes apply principles for assessing corporate legal liability that focus on the quality of corporate management and the actions, omissions and intentions of individual officers or employees. 12.3 Domestic private law regimes communicate clearly the standards of management and supervision expected of different corporate constituents of group business enterprises with respect to the identification, prevention and mitigation of human rights impacts associated with or arising from group operations, on the basis of their role and position within the group business enterprise, and take proper account of the diversity of relationships and linkages through which business enterprises may operate, including equity-based and contract-based relationships. 12.4 Domestic private law regimes communicate clearly the standards of management and supervision expected of business enterprises with respect to the identification, prevention and mitigation of human rights impacts within their supply chains that a business enterprise may cause or contribute to as a result of its policies, practices or operations. 12.5 In the distribution of evidential burdens of proof between the claimant and the defendant company, domestic private law regimes strike an appropriate balance between considerations of access to remedy and fairness to all parties. 12.6 Corporate legal liability under domestic private law regimes is not contingent, in law or in practice, upon a prior finding of corporate legal liability under any domestic public law regime (e.g. a finding of corporate criminal liability or its functional equivalent). 12.7 Affected persons are not prevented, in law or in practice, from bringing a claim because of an ongoing public law (e.g. criminal) investigation into the same set of facts as the prospective private law claim. 12.8 Domestic private law regimes are clear as to their geographic scope. 12.9 The State regularly reviewsd whether its domestic private law regimes provide the necessary coverage and the appropriate range of approaches with respect to business-related human rights impacts in the light of evolving circumstances and the State’s obligations under international human rights treaties, and takes the necessary legislative and/or policy steps to correct any deficiencies in coverage or approach. d See A/HRC/32/19.Add.1, para. 5, box 1. 17