A succession of international economic assistance programs, Wisner argues, is what produced Haiti's food crisis. The policies dealt a heavy blow to domestic agriculture, and a country that had fed itself became chronically insecure and correspondingly exposed to starvation, malnutrition, earthquakes and pandemics.

The claim is legal as much as historical. Food insecurity on this scale amounts to a violation of the right to food, and to rights of health, education and work besides. None of those who imposed the policies — international financial institutions such as the World Bank among them — has accepted responsibility, which is why Wisner presses the case for compliance and remedy by foreign actors.

The paper sets out the emerging recognition of extraterritorial obligations, identifies domestic, regional and international mechanisms where claims arising from them might be adjudicated, and proposes how the doctrine could be applied to existing means of protecting people from harm and compensating them for it.