Rachel Chambers

Education/Professional Certification

• Ph.D. in Law, University of Essex
• LLM, University of Kent
• BA/MA in Law, University of Oxford

Areas of Expertise

Business and human rights, corporate social responsibility, international and comparative law, tort law, corporate law, employment and discrimination law.

Dr. Chambers’ research focuses on business and human rights including corporate accountability mechanisms such as transnational tort litigation and laws mandating human rights disclosure and due diligence by corporations. Prior to joining the UConn School of Business faculty, Dr. Chambers was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at UConn in a collaboration between the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, the School of Business, and the Human Rights Institute.

Dr. Chambers teaches the courses Corporate Social Impact and Responsibility and Business Solutions to Societal Challenges, both of which are cross listed between the Human Rights Institute and the School of Business. As Co-Director of the Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, a body comprising 350 teachers of business and human rights from 140 different countries, Dr. Chambers is actively engaged in business and human rights pedagogy.

Dr. Chambers’ background is in the practice of law. She is a Barrister (England and Wales) with a decade of experience of trial and appeal court advocacy, specialized in employment and discrimination law, personal injuries, and human rights law. She has worked as a consultant for the UN Global Compact and Amnesty International. Before being called the Bar, she worked for corporate social responsibility body, the International Business Leaders Forum.

At UConn, Dr. Chambers serves on the steering committee of the Business and Human Rights Initiative, and on the Human Rights Institute Director’s Gladstein Committee. She advises UConn’s President’s Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility on the advancement of socially responsible policies within the university.

Featured Publications

• “The Future of International Corporate Human Rights Litigation: A Transatlantic Comparison,” 58 American Business Law Journal (forthcoming) (with Gerlinde Berger-Walliser)
• “Parent Company Direct Liability for Overseas Human Rights Violations: Lessons from the U.K. Supreme Court,” 42 University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law 519 (2021) Download Now
• “Human Rights Disclosure and Due Diligence Laws: The Role of Regulatory Oversight in Ensuring Corporate Accountability,” 21 Chicago Journal of International Law 323 (2021) (with Anil Yilmaz Vastardis) Download Now
• “Teaching Business and Human Rights During the Pandemic,” 6 Business and Human Rights Journal 135 (2021) (with Anthony Ewing and Meg Roggensack)
• Transnational Corporations and Human Rights Overcoming Barriers to Judicial Remedy (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
• “An Evaluation of Two Key Extraterritorial Techniques to Bring Human Rights Standards to Bear on Corporate Misconduct: Jurisdictional Dilemmas,” 14 Utrecht Law Review 22 (2018) Download Now
• “Overcoming the Corporate Veil Challenge: Could Investment Law Inspire the Proposed Business and Human Rights Treaty?” 67 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 389 (2018) (with Anil Yilmaz Vastardis) Download Now
• “The New EU Rules on Non-financial Reporting: Potential Impacts on Access to Remedy?” 1 Human Rights and International Legal Discourse 18 (2016) (with Anil Yilmaz Vastardis) Download Now
• “The U.K. Context for Business and Human Rights” in Corporate Responsibility for Human Rights Impacts: New Expectations and Paradigms 301 (American Bar Association, 2014) (with Katherine Tyler)
• “Is Home State Litigation the way to fill the Lacuna in Corporate Legal Accountability for Human Rights Violations Perpetrated in Host States?” 4(2) Journal of Comparative Law 133 (2009)
• “The UN Human Rights Norms for Corporations: The Private Implications of Public International Law,” 6(3) Human Rights Law Review 447 (2006) (with David Kinley)
• “The Unocal Settlement: Implications for the Developing Law on Corporate Complicity in Human Rights Abuses,” 13(1) Human Rights Brief 14 (2005)