TY - JOUR
T1 - Implementing Human Rights Due Diligence through Corporate Civil Liability
AU - Bright, Claire
AU - Bueno, Nicolas
N1 - Funding Information:
* Senior Lecturer and Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Ambizione Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Law of the University of Zurich, nicolas.bueno@uzh.ch; Assistant Professor, Nova School of Law, Lisbon, claire.bright@novalaw.unl.pt. This paper has been presented at the Justice for Transnational Human Rights Violations Conference at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (University of Oxford), at the 5th Annual Conference of the Global Business and Human Rights Scholars Association (University of Essex) and at the Research Workshop on Business and Human Rights (University of Geneva). The authors would like to thank the colleagues who organised these events and all participants for the enriching discussions. We are also grateful to the reviewers and to Professor Robert McCorquodale and Professor Sarah Dadush for their invaluable comments on earlier drafts.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020.
PY - 2020/10/1
Y1 - 2020/10/1
N2 - Since the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the relationship between human rights due diligence (HRDD) and corporate liability has been a source of legal uncertainty. In order to clarify this relationship, this article compares and contrasts civil liability provisions aiming at implementing HRDD. It explains the legal liability mechanisms in the draft Treaty on Business and Human Rights and in domestic mandatory HRDD legislation and initiatives such as the French Duty of Vigilance Law and the Swiss Responsible Business Initiative. It compares these developments with the emerging case law on parent company and supply chain liability for human rights abuses. It explores the potentially perverse effects that certain civil liability provisions and court decisions might have on companies’ practices. Finally, it makes recommendations for the design of effective liability mechanisms to implement HRDD.
AB - Since the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the relationship between human rights due diligence (HRDD) and corporate liability has been a source of legal uncertainty. In order to clarify this relationship, this article compares and contrasts civil liability provisions aiming at implementing HRDD. It explains the legal liability mechanisms in the draft Treaty on Business and Human Rights and in domestic mandatory HRDD legislation and initiatives such as the French Duty of Vigilance Law and the Swiss Responsible Business Initiative. It compares these developments with the emerging case law on parent company and supply chain liability for human rights abuses. It explores the potentially perverse effects that certain civil liability provisions and court decisions might have on companies’ practices. Finally, it makes recommendations for the design of effective liability mechanisms to implement HRDD.
KW - Business and human rights
KW - Human rights
KW - Human rights due diligence
KW - Legal liability
KW - Mandatory due diligence legislation
KW - Parent company liability
KW - Supply chain liability
KW - Treaty on business and human rights
KW - UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85093115687&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020589320000305
DO - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020589320000305
M3 - Article
VL - 69
SP - 789
EP - 818
JO - International and Comparative Law Quarterly
JF - International and Comparative Law Quarterly
IS - 4
ER -
