Theorising Corporate Complicity in State Human Rights Violations Under Nigerian Public Law: The Oil Industry and Community Rights

Corporate complicity in state human rights violations represents a theoretically underdeveloped domain in Nigerian public law, where the legal relationship between multinational oil companies operating in joint ventures with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company and state violence against protesting communities in the Niger Delta has not been systematically theorised. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights 2011 established a framework for corporate human rights responsibility, yet its translation into binding public law obligations within Nigerian courts has not been theoretically examined. This study develops an original theory of corporate complicity in state human rights violations as a public law doctrine applicable to the Nigerian oil industry context, examining the bases of corporate liability for facilitating or benefiting from state violence, the adequacy of existing tort, criminal, and public law frameworks, and the conditions for an effective corporate human rights accountability regime. The methodology applies a doctrinal multi-layered analysis combining the Ruggie Framework analysis, systematic review of Nigerian and international case law on oil company-state complicity claims from 1990 to 2023, and qualitative ethnographic fieldwork in three Delta communities affected by military-corporate security operations. Corporate Accountability Theory, Transnational Legal Process Theory, and Postcolonial Legal Theory provide the theoretical foundations. The study's original contribution is a Corporate Complicity Doctrine in Nigerian Public Law, filling a critical gap in comparative business and human rights scholarship. Findings support recommendations for a Business and Human Rights Act in Nigeria. Keywords: corporate complicity, human rights, oil industry, Niger Delta, business and human rights.