Specific instances under the OECD national contact point and the non-judicial resolution of corporate disputes

Specific Instances under the OECD National Contact Point constitute a formalised non-judicial mechanism for resolving corporate disputes, grounded in an international normative basis that binds the State and governed by procedural rules of their own. The mechanism rests on two distinct normative levels, namely voluntary recommendations addressed to enterprises and binding obligations imposed on adhering States, and this duality of regimes places Specific Instances in a sui generis category, structurally distinct from standard adjudicatory and consensual processes. An examination of the procedural rules of the mechanism, of the transparency and accountability structure of the global NCP system and of the growing linkage between Specific Instances and mandatory human rights due diligence legislation in selected countries leads to two findings, namely that the formalised nature of the mechanism follows from its normative basis and that strengthening Brazil's NCP, in the context of the country's OECD accession process, is a prerequisite for Specific Instances to perform, within the Brazilian legal system, the function that their normative foundation already authorises.