La Convention européenne des droits de l’homme (Convention EDH) et les sociétés commerciales
It seems surprising, even paradoxical, that international instruments protecting human rights such as the European Convention on Human rights (ECHR) also apply to trading companies. They are intended to protect human beings, not to legal persons, a legal fiction.
Nevertheless, the Universal Declaration of Human rights, for instance, and the European Convention itself proclaim rights that are not reserved to individuals, for example property rights (or procedural rights). The case law of the European Court of Human Rights has quickly developed the idea that legal persons must also be protected by the ECHR, and amongst them trading firms.
This article describes the numerous applications of various articles of the ECHR to trading companies; then, it shows examples of violations of rights and freedoms committed by States to the detriment of trading companies. To the contrary, it provides cases of judgments condemning States for not having prevented violations caused to companies, or…
