The first of its kind, this comprehensive interdisciplinary textbook in Business and Human Rights (BHR) connects and integrates themes, discussions, and issues in BHR from both legal and non-legal perspectives, and provides a solid foundation for cross-disciplinary conversations. It equips students, teachers, and scholars with the necessary knowledge to navigate and advance evolving BHR debates, and fosters a thorough understanding of the academic foundations, evolving policy spaces, and practical approaches in BHR. Short cases throughout translate conceptual insights into practical solutions. Study, reflection, and discussion questions help readers to consolidate and synthesize their understanding of the material and provide stimulating frameworks for debate in the classroom and beyond. The book features a collection of online resources to support students and instructors in their preparation for courses and assignments.

In a global economy, multinational companies often operate in jurisdictions where governments are either unable or unwilling to uphold even the basic human rights of their citizens. The expectation that companies respect human rights in their own operations and in their business relationships is now a business reality that corporations need to respond to. Business and Human Rights: From Principles to Practice is the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary textbook that addresses these issues. It examines the regulatory framework that grounds the business and human rights debate and highlights the business and legal challenges faced by companies and stakeholders in improving respect for human rights, exploring such topics as: the regulatory framework that grounds the business and human rights debate, challenges faced by companies and stakeholders in improving human rights, industry-specific human rights standards, current mechanisms to hold corporations to account, future challenges for business and human rights. With supporting case studies throughout, this text provides an overview of current themes in the field and guidance on practical implementation, demonstrating that a thorough understanding of the human rights challenges faced by business is now vital in any business context.

Business and Human Rights Law is a rapidly growing area of law, which has dramatically transformed many parts of international law. In this new volume in the Elements series, Robert McCorquodale explores how the responsibility for human rights abuses has transitioned from a purely state obligation to also being the responsibility of businesses. Business responsibility for human rights impacts have become subject both to legislation and to court decisions whenever their activities lead to human rights abuses anywhere in the world. This book shows the importance of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in these developments, and examines their influence on international, regional, and national law. It also analyses the changes on state obligations to protect human rights, on the corporate responsibility for human rights abuses, and on effective access to remedies for those adversely affected by business activities. Each of these shifts has consequences on core tenets of international law, such as sovereignty and jurisdiction, and has implications for crafting new international law in areas such as climate change and technology. Robert McCorquodale brings his decades of experience in scholarship and legal practice in business and human rights law, as well as his extensive engagement with businesses, governments, civil society, and international organisations, to bear on his understanding and analysis of this increasingly important field.

Business corporations can and do violate human rights all over the world, and they are often not held to account. Emblematic cases and situations such as the state of the Niger Delta and the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory are examples of corporate human rights abuses which are not adequately prevented and remedied. Business and human rights as a field seeks to enhance the accountability of business – companies and businesspeople – in the human rights area, or, to phrase it differently, to bridge the accountability gap. Bridging the accountability gap is to be understood as both setting standards and holding corporations and businesspeople to account if violations occur. Adopting a legal perspective, this book presents the ways in which this dual undertaking has been and could be further carried out in the future, and evaluates the extent to which the various initiatives in the field bridge the corporate accountability gap. It looks at the historical background of the field of business and human rights, and examines salient periods, events and cases. The book then goes on to explore the relevance of international human rights law and international criminal law for global business. International soft law and policy initiatives which have blossomed in recent years are evaluated along with private modes of regulation. The book also examines how domestic law, especially the domestic law of multinational companies’ home countries, can be used to prevent and redress corporate related human rights violations.

The relationship between business and human rights has emerged in the last two decades as one of the most pressing issues in the field of business ethics. Do corporations have human rights responsibilities? If so, what is that nature of those responsibilities and do they differ in any significant way from those of governments? Is it reasonable or realistic to expect corporations to respect human rights in environments where governments, particularly in the developing and underdeveloped world, need economic development and have a limited capacity and/or interest in enforcing human rights standards and laws? The contributors to this groundbreaking volume take up these questions, examining them from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Topics discussed include the debates leading to the creation of the ISO 26000 standard and the United Nations human rights framework for business entities, as well as the nature and limits of the human rights responsibilities of business, the roles and responsibilities of international trade bodies like the World Trade Organization in protecting human rights, and the implications of the current debate for international trade agreements and trade with China. The contributors also explore the effectiveness of voluntary human rights standards in the textile and clothing trade, mining, advertising and the pharmaceutical industry. Scholars and students in management, philosophy, political science, sociology and law will find this volume a great resource, as will activists, managers and policy makers.

The end of the Cold War and the virtual disappearance of communism have completely altered the world economy. The supply chains of supermarkets and consumer goods industries have spread ever more widely and deeply into Asia, Africa and South America, while oil, mining and financial companies, among many others, have invested heavily in countries that were previously denied to them by political or ideological barriers. While companies have seized the opportunities presented by globalisation, they have in many cases been completely unprepared for the risks presented by their headlong rush into these new markets. Companies have found themselves and their business partners operating in countries where corruption, injustice, internal conflict and human rights violations are rife. An increasingly alert and critical world has acted as watchdog, highlighting corporate malpractice and the links between corporations and repressive regimes. It has increasingly been argued that companies have responsibilities for the protection and promotion of human rights. These arguments are, at least to some extent, accepted by companies. Yet, despite the increasing use of human rights language in public policy discourses, the expectations of companies remain unclear. That is, what are the ethical imperatives? What are the legal expectations? How far does responsibility extend? What can companies actually do in practice? The debate is further complicated by the range of actors (companies, governments, international institutions, local communities, non-governmental organisations [NGOs], trade unions, consumers) involved; by debates around free trade versus and fair trade; by the discussion of the specific role of governments; and by questions about the relative merits of regulation and self-regulation. Business and Human Rights provides an analysis of the relationship between companies and human rights in the context of globalisation. The analysis is in two parts. The first maps the reasons (financial, ethical, regulatory) why human rights have become a business issue. However, simply because there are reasons why companies should be concerned about human rights, this does not say what companies should or could do. Therefore, the second part of the book looks at the practical experiences of companies in responding to specific human rights issues in the context of their own operations, in their supply chains and in specific countries. These case studies, many of which have not been previously published or analysed from the perspective of human rights, provide important insights into questions such as: How do companies organise themselves to respond to human rights challenges? What have the experiences been-positive and negative? How have companies responded to specific situations? What are the roles and responsibilities of other actors: government, trade unions, NGOs? What are the limits to responsibility? In this outstanding collection, Rory Sullivan has drawn together leading thinkers and actors from the debate on business and human rights, to establish how far the business and human rights debate has evolved, and explore the many complex questions around roles, responsibilities and solutions that remain to be answered.

This is the first book offering a comprehensive historical and contemporary analysis of the emerging business and human rights field.

Business and human rights (BHR) is a rapidly developing field at the intersection of business, law, and public policy. Teaching Business and Human Rights is a practical guide and resource for the growing community of BHR teachers, students, and practitioners – from advocates and policymakers to business managers and investors. Chapter authors explain common BHR topics, suggest teaching approaches that work in the classroom, and identify helpful teaching resources. Chapters cover the building blocks of a BHR curriculum: foundational topics including corporate responsibility, human rights, and human rights due diligence; tools, such as legislation and litigation, to provide remedy and hold companies accountable for their human rights impacts; and the specific rights affected by businesses in different industries.

More than ten years after the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, this book critically reviews the achievements, limits and next frontiers of business and human rights following the ‘protect, respect, remedy’ trichotomy. The UN Guiding Principles acted as a catalyst for hitherto unprecedented regulatory and judicial developments. The monograph by Macchi proposes a functionalist reading of the state’s duty to regulate the transnational activities of corporations in order to protect human rights and adopts a holistic approach to the corporate responsibility to respect, arguing that environmental and climate due diligence are inherent dimensions of human rights due diligence. In the volume emerging legislations are assessed on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence, as well as the potential and limitations of a binding international treaty on business and human rights. The book also reviews groundbreaking litigation against transnational corporations, such as Lungowe v. Vedanta or Milieudefensie v. Shell, for their human rights and climate change impacts. The book is primarily targeted at academic and non-academic legal experts, as well as at researchers and students looking at business and human rights issues through the lenses of legal studies (particularly international law and European law), political sciences, business ethics, and management. Additionally, it should also find a readership among practitioners working in the public or private sector (consultants, CSR officers, legal officers, etc.) willing to familiarize themselves with the expanding areas of liability, financial and reputational risks connected to the social and environmental impacts of global supply chains. Chiara Macchi is currently Lecturer in Law at Wageningen University & Research in The Netherlands.

An innovative textbook setting out a systematic approach to business and human rights.