Transitional Justice and Corporate Accountability from Below explores how domestic courts in the Global South, often more effective than international bodies, pursue corporate complicity in crimes like forced labor and financial support of dictatorships. It introduces the idea of “corporate accountability from below,” emphasizing grassroots legal efforts.
Publications
CATJ operates across several transitional justice contexts, with a strong foundation in Latin America:
Argentina – Strategic litigation around corporate complicity during the dictatorship.
Colombia – Legal and policy influence in the post-conflict era, particularly through the Justice and Peace process and after the Peace Agreement with the FARC.
Chile – Collaboration on accountability processes for businesses involved in past regime violence.
The project also contributes to broader global discussions on transitional justice, supporting scholars and civil society organizations seeking justice beyond Latin America.
Over the past decade, our research on corporate accountability and transitional justice has generated sustained impact beyond academia. Working with victims, civil society organizations, prosecutors, judges, and international bodies, we have translated cutting-edge empirical academic research into litigation, policy reform, advocacy, and institutional change. Our impact activities span strategic litigation, international human rights advocacy, practitioner guidance, and public engagement, contributing to concrete accountability processes and to the strengthening of legal and policy frameworks addressing corporate involvement in human rights violations. The activities listed below document these efforts in chronological order.
We undertook the coding of corporate accountability as part of the“Alter-native Accountabilities”grant funded by the National Science Foundation-Arts and Humanities Research Council. On that project we collaborated with Professor Kathryn Sikkink and her team at the University of Minnesota: ,Geoff Dancy, Verónica Michel, and Bridget Marchesi. Other members of the research team included: Alec Albright, Brooke Coe, Emalie Coplan, Holly Dunn, Grace Fiddler, Katherine Franzel, Marie-Christine Ghreichi, Katrina Heimark, Daniel Johnson, Meagan Johnson, Maggie Loeffelholz, Moira Lynch, Cameron Mailhot, Florencia Montal ,Zachary Payne-Meili, Farrah Tek, and Marcela Villarrazo.Other participants on the initial phase of this project include: Andrew Reiter at Mt Holyoke College, Tricia Olsen at the University of Denver-Daniels School of Business, and from the University of Oxford Francesca Lessa, Emily Braid, and Pierre Le Goff. As we began to develop the CATJ database, we benefited from research assistance from University of Oxford affiliated researchers–Kathryn Babineau, Ivo Bantel, Lina Malagón, Maike Sieben, and Julia Zulver–and University of Minnesota Law students Mary Beall and Ami Hutchinson.
ANDHES researchers: Josefina Doz Costa, Cynthia Ovejero.
© 2026 Leigh A. Payne. All rights reserved.
