A/HRC/32/19 Annex Guidance to improve corporate accountability and access to judicial remedy for business-related human rights abusea I. Enforcement of public law offences Principles for assessing corporate legal liability Policy objective 1: Domestic public law regimes that are relevant to the respect by business enterprises of human rights (“domestic public law regimes”) are sufficiently detailed and robust to ensure that there is both effective deterrence from and effective remedy in the event of business-related human rights abuses. 1.1 Domestic public law regimes (a) provide the necessary coverage with respect to business-related human rights abuses; (b) adopt legislative, regulatory and policy measures appropriate to the type, nature and severity of different business-related human rights impacts; and (c) are clear as to whether, and the extent to which, they impose legal obligations on companies. 1.2 Domestic public law regimes make appropriate provisions for corporate criminal liability, or its functional equivalent, in cases where business-related human rights impacts are severe. 1.3 Corporate legal liability under domestic public law regimes does not depend, in law or in practice, on a prior successful conviction of an individual offender. 1.4 Domestic public 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. 1.5 Domestic public 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 appropriate account of the diversity of relationships and linkages through which business enterprises may operate, including equity-based and contract-based relationships. 1.6 Domestic public law regimes communicate clearly the standards of management and supervision expected of business enterprises with respect to the identification, prevention and mitigation of any 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. 1.7 In the distribution of evidential burdens of proof between an enforcement agency and a defendant company, domestic public law regimes strike an appropriate balance between considerations of access to remedy and fairness to all parties. 1.8 a 12 Domestic public law regimes are clear as to their geographic scope. See A/HRC/32/19.Add.1. See also www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/OHCHRstudyondomesticlawremedies.aspx.