CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER, HUMAN RIGHTS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: AN APPRAISAL OF AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL KILLING LAWS.

The right to life is a universally recognized human right, which is the utmost critical right of any human being residing anywhere in the world with any identity. Despite this, many workers are getting killed while working for a living. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that a total of 2.3 million workers currently die from workrelated injuries and diseases worldwide every year, numbering over 6,000 deaths every single day, and another 160 million breadwinners suffer from nonfatal diseases. They are being killed largely with impunity, although they are the mainspring of development, which cannot be sustainable without protecting workers from peril. Australia is no exception, where corporate homicides used to be tried under common law with little or no success, primarily because of the legal complexity invoked by the pro-corporation organic theory. To ease the conviction of corporate offenders and promote justice by circumventing this theory, several Australian jurisdictions have recently introduced statutory industrial manslaughter laws that demonstrate both convergence and divergence in definitions of the offense and offenders. This Article aims to appraise the efficacy of these laws of three Australian jurisdictions in terms of facilitation of conviction with a view to promoting sustainable development by protecting workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]