Looked at through the topic of State responsibility, chapter five underlines the continued importance and relevance of the general rules of international law in addressing some of the challenges encountered when dealing with State corporate ownership and human rights. The first part of the chapter provides an introduction to the nature and scope of State responsibility in international law with particular emphasis being placed on the role and process of attribution. In this context, the rules of attribution found in Articles 4, 5 and 8 of the International Law Commission Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts are examined in detail. The second part of the chapter analyses how the concept of due diligence becomes relevant when certain acts and omissions cannot be attributed to the State because those acts are not perpetrated by State organs, by actors that exercise governmental authority, or by those that are not under the 'effective control' of the State. In such cases, States, can nevertheless, be held responsible for a failure to act diligently to take all the necessary measures to prevent or punish the occurrence of a specific act.

Chapter four has a dual purpose: it firstly demonstrates how the increased participation of States in economic activities through their SOEs, has fundamentally changed international law; and secondly, it analyses some of the unique challenges posed by the doctrine of sovereign immunity to the regulation of SOEs. In this context, sovereign immunity is viewed as a unique challenge because if a SOE pleads immunity, a domestic court could be barred from either adjudicating the dispute in question, or from enforcing a judgment that has been obtained against a SOE. A plea of immunity could thus leave victims without a method to access justice, or without an effective remedy if the judgment that has been obtained cannot be enforced. With a focus on immunity from adjudication, the chapter looks into key issues such as the difference between acts jure imperii and acts jure gestionis, the process of assimilating SOEs into the State and some of the key exceptions to State immunity applicable to SOE such as the commercial transaction exception; the non-commercial tort exception and asks next whether there is a human rights exception to State immunity.

Commencing with a brief introduction to the concept of legal personality in international law and the long-standing and remaining challenges associated with the recognition of corporations as subjects of international law, chapter two looks at SOEs through the lens of the concept of legal personality in international law and argues that SOEs are a sui generis type of 'participant' in international law. The following distinguishing characteristics make SOEs a sui generis participant in international law: their belonging to the public domain, their role and rationale for existence and the creation of separate regulatory regimes to address some of the challenges associated with State corporate ownership at domestic, regional and international level. By delving deeper into the close connection between the State and its SOEs, the chapter argues that from the perspective of the SOE, the widely accepted responsibility to respect human rights is elevated to the level of a duty in the case of SOEs. Overall, the chapter demonstrated the increased heterogeneity and complexity of the notion of participation on the international plane.

Chapter three examines several selected instruments created to regulate SOEs at international, regional and domestic level and seeks to determine their effect on international law. At international level the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the OECD Guidelines on the Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises, the OECD Common Approaches for Officially Supported Credits and Environmental and Social Due Diligence, the ILO Tripartite Declaration Concerning Multinational Enterprises, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Sovereign Wealth Funds Generally Accepted Principles and Practices and the Global Compact are particularly relevant for SOEs. At regional level, public procurement may represent a key regulatory opportunity for SOEs from a human rights perspective and to this end this section provides an analysis of the EU Public Procurement Directives. The section on domestic approaches to SOE regulation analyses measures that have been taken by several States to address the human rights dimension of State corporate ownership.