Suchergebnisse

In recent years, the field of business and human rights has witnessed a shift from soft law to hard law, which has been taking place as a number of states have been intensifying their efforts to comply with their duty to protect human rights. Some states have adopted legislation on human rights reporting such as the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, whilst other states have favoured the adoption of mandatory human rights due diligence legislation to govern corporate behaviour both within their territories and abroad. This is the case of the French Duty of Vigilance Law, which also provides for an associated civil liability regime in case of harm. This paper explores the limitations of these fragmented domestic approaches and argues that there is a pressing need to create a legislative level playing field at the European level. It investigates the strenghts and weaknesses of the French of Vigilance Law in order to determine whether it could serve as a model.

Examining Board: Professeur Marie-Ange Moreau, EUI (Directrice de thèse) Professeur Horatia Muir-Watt, Science-Po Paris (Co-directrice de thèse) Professeur Francesco Francioni, EUI Professeur Olivier De Schutter, Université catholique de Louvain. ; Defence date: 14 October 2013 ; First made available online on 10 September 2014. ; Cette thèse se propose d'analyser l'accès à la justice civile pour les victimes de violations de droits de l'homme commises par des entreprises multinationales, au regard des règles de compétence internationale des tribunaux de international privé en matière de responsabilité civile délictuelle. La recherche mettra en exergue la double fonction que peuvent endosser les règles de compétence de droit international privé dans ce domaine, en assurant, d'une part, un accès effectif à la justice et à la réparation pour les victimes de tels abus, et en participant, d'autre part à l'effort de régulation des entreprises multinationales sur le plan global.

AbstractSince 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.

AbstractThe corporate responsibility to respect human rights was formally introduced in 2011 with the unanimous endorsement of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) by the UN Human Rights Council. It is grounded in social expectations and forms part of the companies' "social license to operate." This paper argues that this responsibility is progressively turning into a legal duty for lead companies to respect human rights in those types of value chains which are characterized by a high level of control by a lead company over its business partners. Our argument rests on two recent legal developments. Firstly, the article analyzes the judicialization of the corporate responsibility to respect in the case law on parent company liability in various jurisdictions, which, we argue, is highly likely to have some implications in relation to certain types of value chains so as to trigger the liability of lead companies for the human rights harms arising out of the activities of entities over which they exercise sufficient control. Secondly, the article delves into the legislative developments which increasingly require lead companies to exercise due diligence so as to prevent and address adverse human rights impacts in their own activities and global value chains.