ABSTRACT
The International Labour Organization reported in 2021 that 17.3 million people globally were forced labourers in the private sector. As came to light in the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Nevsun Resources Ltd v Araya, Canadian multinational corporations (‘MNCs’) have used, and continue to use, forced labourers within their global supply chains. Several overlapping factors allow Canadian MNCs to evade liability for their use of forced labour. In instances of human rights violations perpetrated by MNCs, plaintiffs have attempted to advance tort claims. However, by bringing an action in tort, plaintiffs are faced with procedural challenges, including issues relating to choice of law, jurisdiction, and piercing the corporate veil, that bar their case from being heard on the merits. More than creating an incongruence between the aims of the justice system and the application of that justice system, without a reliable means to hold these corporations accountable for their wrongdoings, vulnerable people are left without remedies for the clear wrongs perpetrated against them. This paper proposes the use of the equitable doctrine of unjust enrichment, entirely separate from tort law, to overcome the procedural issues identified.
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Jordyn Selznick, Enrichment, Exploitation, and the Evasion of Responsibility: A Proposal to Apply the Equitable Doctrine of Unjust Enrichment to Bridge the Accountability Gap and Provide Remedies to the Victims of Forced Labour Abroad (2025) 83 University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review 169.
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