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Professor Douglass Cassel is a globally recognized expert on business and human rights, international human rights and criminal law, and public international law. He advises and represents corporate, governmental and non-governmental clients in matters before the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights, United Nations human rights bodies, the International Criminal Court, National Contact Points under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, national courts, international arbitrations, the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and in international treaty negotiations and peace negotiations.
Chambers & Partners recognizes Cassel as a “Global Market Leader” (band 2) in Business and Human Rights Law. Chambers notes, “An impressed client reports: ‘He is an immense asset to the legal profession and to his firm.’” Since 2022 Professor Cassel serves as inaugural Co-Chair of the global Business and Human Rights Lawyers Association (BHRLA). He frequently speaks at meetings of the BHRLA, the International Bar Association, and the International Chamber of Commerce, among others.
Professor Cassel advises and provides training to companies on the adoption of policies and procedures on business and human rights, including human rights and environmental due diligence and risk avoidance in their operations and value chains. He also helps resolve claims of adverse impacts by claimants, shareholders and ESG rating agencies.
Cassel has represented or advised international law experts, former United States diplomats, and other distinguished amici curiae in numerous cases before the United States Supreme Court. He maintains an extensive pro bono practice with the Vance Center for International Justice of the New York City Bar Association, representing former judges, prosecutors, journalists, human rights advocates and political candidates unjustly accused of crimes by corrupt and authoritarian regimes in Central America.
Professor Cassel is a member of the editorial board of the American Bar Association’s Key Business and Human Rights Documents. His 2023 article for the International Chamber of Commerce Institute of World Business Law, The ‘Hardening’ and ‘Broadening’ of Norms on Business and Human Rights, is a panoramic analysis of the field.
Prior to joining King & Spalding in 2018, Professor Cassel taught and published, most recently at Notre Dame Law School, as a tenured full professor and Notre Dame Presidential Fellow. He has also taught at leading universities in Belgium, England, Hungary, Mexico and Spain, and lectured at many others. He has published more than one hundred scholarly articles and reviews, including in such journals as the Business and Human Rights Journal and the Business Ethics Quarterly.
Professor Cassel authored the chapter on jurisdiction in the Research Handbook on Human Rights and Business (Edward Elgar Pub. 2020). On behalf of the American Bar Association’s Human Rights Center and the Law Society of England and Wales, he was principal author of the White Paper: Options for a Treaty on Business and Human Rights (2015).
Professor Cassel is experienced in investigations, negotiations and diplomacy. He was Legal Advisor to the United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador; investigated military massacres in Colombia and Thailand; and chaired an independent international panel investigating paramilitary killings in Northern Ireland. Colombia’s Nobel Laureate President Juan Manuel Santos called on him to help negotiate the transitional justice provisions of the 2016 peace treaty with FARC guerrillas. President Santos later awarded Cassel the highest honor Colombia confers on foreign civilians.
Cassel is a former president of the Due Process of Law Foundation. He was elected four times by the Organization of American States to serve on the Board of the Justice Studies Center of the Americas, which he served as president.
Professor Cassel is an honors graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School.
Illustrative Articles:
State Jurisdiction to Regulate and Adjudicate Transnational Corporate Activity, in Research Handbook on Human Rights and Business.198-222 (Surya Deva and David Birchall, eds., Edward Elgar Pub. 2020).
Outlining the Case for a Common Law Duty of Care of Business to Exercise Human Rights Due Diligence, 1 Business and Human Rights Journal 179 (2016), DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/bhj.2016.15 (Cambridge University Press, England), accessible at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=10291000&fileId=S2057019816000158.
Presentación: Represión Judicializada en el Ecuador, in El uso del poder judicial para vulnerar los derechos humanos en el Ecuador (2016) (Interamerican Institute for Democracy and Inter-American Bar Association); English version: Introduction, in The Role of the Judiciary in the Violation of Human Rights in Ecuador (2016), accessible at http://www.intdemocratic.org/es/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/The-Role-of-the-Judiciary-in-the-Violation-of-Human-Rights-in-Ecuador.pdf.
The United States and Human Rights Treaties: Can We Meet Our Commitments?, American Bar Association, Human Rights Magazine, Volume 41, No. 2 (2015).
White Paper: Options for a Treaty on Business and Human Rights 6 Notre Dame J. Int’l & Comp. Law, Iss. 1, Art. 1 (2015), co-authored with Anita Ramasastry for the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, and the Law Society of England and Wales (also accessible at http://business-humanrights.org/en/white-paper-outlines-possible-options-for-business-human-rights-treaty#c124730).
Sistemas Regionales de Protección de Derechos Humanos y la Resistencia por parte de los Estados: El Caso del Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos (2011-2013), in Estado constitucional, derechos humanos, justicia y vida universitaria: Estudios en homenaje a Jorge Carpizo, Tomo V, Volumen 1, p. 401, Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, Universidad Autónoma de México (2015).
Suing Americans for Human Rights Torts Overseas: The Supreme Court Leaves the Door Open, 89 Notre Dame Law Review 1773 (2014).
The United Nations Global Compact and Human Rights: A Modest But Useful Niche, in Oliver Williams, ed., Sustainable Development: the Millennium Development Goals, The U.N. Global Compact and the common good 184 (2014).
Regional Human Rights Systems and State Pushback: The Case of the Inter-American Human Rights System (2011-2013), 33 Human Rights Law Journal 1 (2013).
El Alcance e Impacto Cada Vez Mayores de las Reparaciones Ordenadas por la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, in La Justicia Constitucional y su Internacionalización. ¿Hacia un Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina?, Tomo II, p. 215, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la Universidad Autónoma de México, eds., (2010).
Empresas Multinacionales y Complicidad en Violaciones de los Derechos Humanos: Confusión Judicial Estadounidense, 63 Derecho Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú 255 (2009) (updated version in Spanish of Corporate Aiding and Abetting of Human Rights Violations: Confusion in the Courts, 6 NW. U. J. INT’L HUM. RTS. 304 (2008)).
International Human Rights Law and Security Detention, 40 Case Western Reserve journal of International Law 383 (2009), reprinted in Martin Scheinin, ed. Terrorism and Human Rights (Elgar, Cheltenham Glos, England, 2013).
Pretrial and Preventive Detention of Suspected Terrorists: Options and Constraints under International Law, 98 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 811 (2008) (published by Northwestern University School of Law), reprinted in Terrorist Rendition and Detention: State Practices (A. Begum, ed.) 1 (Amicus Books, Icfai University Press, Hyderabad, India, 2008).
Corporate Aiding and Abetting of Human Rights Violations: Confusion in the Courts, 6 Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights 304 (2008).
Transnational Corporate Accountability and the Rule of Law (co-authored with Sean O’Brien), in Oliver Williams, ed., Peace Through Commerce: Responsible corporate citizenship and the ideals of the united nations global compact (2008), p. 77.
Liberty, Judicial Review and the Rule of Law at Guantanamo: A Battle Half Won, 43 New England Law Review 37 (2008).
The Expanding Scope and Impact of Reparations Awarded by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in Out of the Ashes: Reparations for Gross Violations of Human Rights, K. De Feyter, S. Parmentier, M. Bossuyt and P. Lemmens eds. (Intersentia 2005), p. 191; reprinted in Revista do Insitituto Brasileiro de Direitos Humanos, Ano 7, Vol.7, Núm. 7, 2006/2007 p. 91.
The Globalization of Human Rights: Consciousness, Law and Reality, 2 NW.U.J. Int’l Hum. Rts. 6 (2004).
International Remedies in National Criminal Cases: ICJ Judgment in Germany v. United States, 15 Leiden Journal of International Law 69 (2002).
Human Rights and Business Responsibilities in the Global Marketplace, 11 Business Ethics Quarterly 261 (2001).
La Lucha Contra La Impunidad ante el Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos, in Verdad y Justicia: Homenaje a Emilio Mignone, Juan Méndez et al., eds. (Inter-American Institute of Human Rights 2001) 357.
Does International Human Rights Law Make a Difference?, 2 Chicago Journal of International Law 121 (2001).
Empowering United States Courts to Adjudge Crimes within the Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, 35 New England Law Review 421 (2001).
Inter-American Human Rights Law, Soft and Hard, in Commitment and Compliance: The Role of Non-Binding Norms in the International Legal System 393 (Dinah Shelton, ed.)(2000).
Judicial Remedies for Treaty Violations in Criminal Cases: Consular Rights of Foreign Nationals in United States Death Penalty Cases, 12 Leiden Journal of International Law 851 (1999).
The ICC’s New Legal Landscape: The Need to Expand United States Domestic Jurisdiction to Prosecute Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, 23 Fordham International Law Journal 378 (1999).
El Perú Se Retira de la Corte: Afrontará el Reto el Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos?, 29 Revista Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos 69 (1999) (Spanish language version of Peru Withdraws from the Court).
The Future of the Inter-American Human Rights System, (co-authored with Thomas Buergenthal), in El Futuro del Sistema Interamericano de Protección de los Derechos Humanos 539 (Inter-American Institute of Human Rights 1998).
Corporate Initiatives: A Second Human Rights Revolution?, 19 Fordham International Law Journal 1963 (1996).
Book Reviews:
Book Review of Bertrand Ramcharan, A History of the UN Human Rights Programme and Secretariat (Brill Nijhoff 2020), 115 American J. Int’l Law 348-353 (2021).
Book Review of Alan McPherson, Ghosts of Sheridan Circle: How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet’s Terror State to Justice (Univ. North Carolina Press 2019), 42 Hum. Rts. Quarterly 205-212 (2021).
Building a Treaty on Business and Human Rights: Context and Contours (Surya Deva and David Bilchitz, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2017), HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY 41 (2019) 497–547.
Fundamental Rights in Europe: Challenges and Transformations in Comparative Perspective, by Federico Fabbrini (Oxford University Press 2014), in Human Rights Law Review 2016;
doi: 10.1093/hrlr/ngw008 (England), accessible at http://hrlr.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/04/28/hrlr.ngw008.full?keytype=ref&ijkey=KCR7pibGybMICRG.
All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals, by David Scheffer, 107 American Journal of International Law 252 (2013).
The Practice and Procedure of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 100 American Journal of International Law 503 (2006).
The Inter-American System of Human Rights, 93 American Journal of International Law 555 (1999).
Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law in New Democracies, 92 American Journal of International Law 607 (1998).
Teaching International Human Rights Law, 91 American Journal of International Law 215 (1997).
Illustrative Recent Speaking Engagements:
What Can Corporate Social Responsibility?and Human Rights?Assessments?Teach to International Arbitration? (panel), in Washington Arbitration Week, Washington, D.C., December 2021.
Civil Liability of Business for Human Rights Abuses in Value Chains, in Conference on Les opportunités y les défis pour una convention international sur les entreprises y les droits de l’homme, organized by the Paris Human Rights Center of Université Panthéon-Assas Paris II and the Human Rights and Business Institute of the University of Monterrey, Mexico, Paris, November 2021.
Historia y perspectivas de las relaciones de los EE.UU. con el Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos, in 2d International Colloquium on Inter-American Human Rights System, Universidad Nacional de Mexico, UNAM-Boston, Centro de Estudios Mexicanos, Boston, November 2021.
Contrasting Transatlantic Perspectives on Business and Human Rights, in webinar on Contemporary Issues in EU-US Relations, City University of London Law School, Institute for the Study of European Law, Jean Monnet Chair in Transatlantic Relations, London, November 2021.
La responsabilidad de los abogados en materia de empresas y derechos humanos (Panelist), in Pre Session: Bar Associations and the Business and Human Rights Agenda: A Regional Vision 10 years after the Guiding Principles, sponsored by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Vance Center for International Justice of the New York City Bar Association, in VI Regional Forum on Business and Human Rights for Latin America and the Caribbean, October 2021.
Developments in Business and Human Rights Law for Multi-Jurisdictional Corporate Accountability, Jindal Society of International Law, Jindal Global Law School, India, August 2021.
Buscando la paz con la mayor justicia posible: un recuerdo personal de la negociación de la JEP, invited presentation to the Special Tribunal for Peace, Bogotá, Colombia, July 2021.
Mesa Redonda: Debida diligencia en derechos humanos en México: de la discusión a la acción, sponsored by Oxfam et al. and financed by European Union et al., Mexico (virtual), March 2021.
El enfoque del proyecto de tratado sobre la regulación de las empresas, en Seminario Empresas y Derechos Humanos,organizado por el Observatorio del Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos de la UNAM, el Instituto de Derechos Humanos y Empresas de la Universidad de Monterrey y la Relatoría Especial DESCA de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Mexico, March 2021.
Promotion and Defense of Judicial Independence in the United Nations Human Rights System, Guatemalan Asociación Guatemalteca de Jueces por la Integridad, co-sponsored by the Vance Center for International Justice of the New York City Bar Association, February 2021.
Human Rights and Investment Arbitration (panel), Washington Arbitration Week 2020, Washington, D.C. (remote by zoom), December 2020.
Legal Liability and Enforcement (panel), sponsored by International Commission of Jurists and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, as a side event to the Fifth meeting of the UN Intergovernmental Working Group on the elaboration of a treaty on business and human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland, October 2019.
Conversatorio en empresas y derechos humanos para árbitros y abogados (panel), Centro de Arbitraje y Conciliación de la Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá, Bogotá, Colombia, October 2019.
Comentarios sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos, Curso Presencial para abogados de empresas, sponsored by the International Bar Association, the Cámara de Servicios Legales of the Asociación Nacional de Emptresas de Colombia (ANDI), and the Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá, at the ANDI, Bogotá, Colombia, October 2019.
La perspectiva jurídica de la debida diligencia corporativa en derechos humanos: experiencias comparadas (panel), en Conferencia sobre La debida diligencia empresarial en Derechos Humanos y la sostenibilidad, organized by the Defensoría del Pueblo de Colombia, en la Pontífica Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia, October 2019.
Empresas y Derechos Humanos, en Diplomado de Formación en el Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos “Héctor Fix Zamudio,” sponsored by the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Inter-American Commission and Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Mexico City, Mexico, September 2019.
Corporate Actors and Human Rights (panel), in Balancing Competing Rights: A Conference in Honour of Professor Sheldon Leader, Essex Human Rights Centre, School of Law, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom, September 2019.
Keynote Speaker, Inversión y Derechos Humanos: Una Mirada Global desde Colombia, sponsored by Zuleta Beyond Borders, Bogotá Colombia, August 2019.
Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace, in panel on Victims’ Rights, Reconciliation, and Transitional Justice, in Conference on The Colombia Peace Process After Two Years, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame, Washington, D.C., June 2019.
Keynote Address, Empresas y Derechos Humanos: Unos Apuntes sobre Donde Estamos, Adonde Vamos, Primera Conferencia Latinoamericana sobre Derechos Humanos y Empresas, Universidad del Rosario, co-patrocinada por la Universidad Javeriana y otras universidades y por la Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá, Bogotá, Colombia, May 2019.
Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Abuses (panel), 2019 Wolfgang Friedmann Conference, Columbia Law School, New York, New York, April 2019.
International Human Rights Law, the Environment, Major Projects and ISDS, CLE presentation to International Arbitration Practice Group, King & Spalding, New York, New York, February 2019.
Zero Draft: Are We Closer to Solving the Business and Human Rights Crisis?, Harvard Human Rights and Business Law Student Association, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 2018.
International Law, Soft and Hard, and Domestic Tort Law, in Panel on Public International Law and Corporate Accountability, in Conference on Piercing the Corporate Veil: Multinational Corporate Accountability, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada, November 2018.
Empresas y Derechos Humanos: ¿Dónde Estamos y Adónde Vamos?, Inaugural Address, Institute of Human Rights and Business, University of Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico, November 2018.
Transitional Justice in Colombia and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in High Level Conference, The Legacy of Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni: Criminal Justice and Human Rights, The Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, Siracusa, Italy, September 2018.
Empresas y Derechos Humanos, en Diplomado de Formación en el Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos “Héctor Fix Zamudio,” sponsored by the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Inter-American Commission and Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Mexico City, Mexico, September 2018.
La Corte Interamericana, La Justicia y La Paz, in Commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, San José, Costa Rica, July 2018.
Las Obligaciones de los Estados en Materia de Medio Ambiente y Derechos Humanos, [“State Obligations in Matters of Environment and Human Rights”], in Seminar on Environment and Human Rights, Observatory on the Inter-American System of Human Rights, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico, April 2018.
Business and Human Rights: Can Business Lawyers Make a Difference?, Tenth Annual Lecture on the Legal Profession, Center for the Study of the Legal Profession, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C., February 2018.
The European Union and the Prospects for a UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights, private briefing in Expert Meeting on Business and Human Rights, European Commission, Brussels, January 2018.
Business Accountability for Human Rights Violations, University of Minnesota Law School Faculty Presentation, Minneapolis, November 2017.
Building a Treaty on Business and Human Rights: Context and Contours, Book Launch, Commentator, United Nations Library Geneva, in collaboration with South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human and Rights and International Law of the University of Johannesburg, Geneva, Switzerland, October 2017.
Roundtable multi-stakeholder discussion on the Elements of a treaty on business and human rights, panelist, sponsored by International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, Switzerland, October 2017.
A Business Duty of Care to Exercise Human Rights Due Diligence (panelist), in OHCHR Consultation: The Relevance of Human Rights Due Diligence to Determinations of Corporate Liability, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland, October 2017.
Prevention, human rights due diligence and disclosure, in program on Elements for a Treaty on Business and Human Rights, co-sponsored by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and the International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, Switzerland, September 2017.
Discussion on UN Business and Human Rights Treaty, Webinar, United States Council for International Business, with Robert McCorquodale, June 2017.
Access to Justice and Redress in Extraterritorial Perspective (panel), in International Seminar, Business and Human Rights: Comparing Experiences, sponsored by Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament d’Afers I Relacions, in cooperation with Parlament de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, February 2017.
The process towards a treaty on business and human rights: a roundtable multi-stakeholder discussion, panel sponsored by the International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, Switzerland, October 2016.
Options for a Treaty on Business and Human Rights, panelist on program sponsored by International Organization of Employers, 4th Annual UN World Forum on Business and Human Rights, United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, November 2015.
An International Human Rights Perspective on the Mining Industry, in “A Day of Reflection – In Union with God We Hear a Plea,” sponsored by the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace, Rome, July 2015.
Options for a Treaty on Business and Human Rights, International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, Switzerland, May 2015.
The United Nations Negotiations on a Treaty on Business and Human Rights, Global Business Initiative on Human Rights, Meeting in Reston, Virginia, April 2015.
Why Big Oil and Human Rights Should Do Business Together, Chevron Corporation, San Ramon, California, February 2015.
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