Today, business and human rights is a well-accepted field of study promulgated by academics, industry and civil society groups around the world. But in the mid-1990s, when a fledgling lawyer in England decided to sue a behemoth asbestos corporation in South Africa, the idea that corporations might have a responsibility to respect human rights, no matter where, was more pipedream than reality.
David Kinley’s book, In a Rain of Dust, tells a Dickensian tale of men and women killed by the mining of asbestos and the lawyer who fought for them. It reads like a well-crafted thriller rather than the diary of a very complicated lawsuit.
