Abstract

The disastrous AIDS epidemic, the numbers killed by which worldwide have overtaken those of the dead in all civil wars of the 90s, took a special turn in South Africa with the legal case “Hazel Tau vs. Glaxo and Boehringer”. The case translates the multidimensional social issues into the narrower quaestiones juris : has the pricing policy of transnational pharmaceutical enterprises violated fundamental human rights? Can AIDS patients assert their right to life directly against transnational corporations? Does “Access to Medication as a Human Right” exist in the private sector? More generally, do fundamental rights obligate not only States, but also private transnational actors directly?