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Human rights in global supply chains: Measuring the effectiveness of home state regulatory models on corporate behaviour

Lead Research Organisation: International Institute for Environment and Development
Department Name: Head office

Abstract

Since the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in 2011, various national legislative developments are being aimed at turning the voluntary UNGPs into binding legal obligations for corporate human rights impacts within global supply chains. The leading examples of such laws are those of the Germany, France, and the proposed EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. Although these laws are built on the concepts of the UNGPs, they each follow different models in terms of scope, types of duties imposed, and level of enforcement , and they are all enacted by the so-called "home states" of transnational corporations (countries where the companies at the top end of global supply chains are based).

This study will investigate and compare the effect of each of these home state legal models on corporate practice. In particular, the focus will be on eight jurisdictions in which key developments have or are taking place: the Germany, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, the EU and the forced labour import bans already in existence in the US and currently proposed by the EU.
 
Description Engagement with Baroness Young of Hornsey
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Engagement with Home Office, Department of Business and Trade, FCDO
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Engagement with UK Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description AENEAS project 
Organisation Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
Country Italy 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Collaboration with AENEAS and participation in workshops, seminars and trainings.
Collaborator Contribution AENEAS is a three-year 2024-2027 Jean Monnet Module research project entitled 'European Due Diligence Law in Global Value Chains. It includes workshops, seminars, publications, and trainings.
Impact workshop on Sustainability Due Diligence (Milan, 6 June 2025). It will involve scholars, businesses, representative associations, and representatives from institutions.
Start Year 2024
 
Description Edited book on national supply chains in a globalised world (Edward Elgar) 
Organisation Westphalian University
Country Germany 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Book working title: Comparing national supply chain laws for human rights: From the UN Guiding Principles to corporate practices Editors: Dr Irene Pietropaoli, Dr Jasmine Elliott, Dr Sofia Gonzalez De Aguinaga, Professor Andreas Rühmkorf, Alina Ganser As part of the award's UK-German collaboration we are working with the Westfälische Hochschule towards publishing an edited book on national supply chains in a globalised world as the first output of this research project. All members of this team will be joint editors of the book, thus providing career development opportunities for the more junior members of the research team. The book will be published with Edward Elgar. The book is based on a workshop held at BIICL in London on 12th December 2024. The chapter authors of the book all presented their chapters in progress at that workshop and received feedback from the author authors and external attendees. The book is intended to submit the manuscript in early summer 2025. Current developments at EU level (the proposed so-called 'Omnibus Directive') might delay this by a few weeks as the book will have to take account of recent changes at EU level to the European framework for human rights in global supply chains. Currently, all draft chapters have been submitted and they are undergoing peer review. The chapters will then be revised in light of the feedback and then the manuscript will be completed by the editors. The book will be the first comprehensive comparative presentation of the various national laws in Europea and beyond on the issue of human rights in global supply chains. Since the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in 2011, various national legislative developments are being aimed at turning the voluntary UNGPs into binding legal obligations for corporate human rights impacts within global supply chains. The leading examples of such national laws are those of the UK, Germany and France. In March 2024, the European Union passed the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive which will impact on and harmonise the legal regulations in this area across the EU. Although these laws are built on the concepts of the UNGPs, they each follow different models in terms of scope, types of duties imposed, and level of enforcement and they are all enacted by the so-called "home states" of transnational corporations, namely those countries where the companies at the top end of global supply chains are based such as the UK, France and Germany. The existing legal literature tends to focus on one national law at a time. Through providing a detailed assessment of national laws both individually and comparatively, this book will fill an important knowledge gap in the existing literature. Given that the European Directive passed in March 2024, it is now a suitable time to compare existing legal modes of operations and the possible impacts of the Directive on these national laws. Moreover, most of the discussions of the national laws are published in the respective native languages such as French or German. This situation limits access of the international audience to the important debates surrounding these laws. This limited access contradicts the international nature of these laws and the international interest that they generate among academics, policy makers and practitioners alike. This book will overcome these linguistic barriers and thus become an important reference point in future discussions about supply chain laws.
Collaborator Contribution BIICL and Westfälische Hochschule have worked together for the organisation and editing of the book and the engagement with the book chapters' authors.
Impact The book will have two main parts. Part One of the book will be a thorough analysis of the eight focus jurisdictions, based on a set of questions provided by the editors to the chapter authors. The book's second part will build on the individual country analysis and provide an overall and comprehensive assessment of the state of play in global supply chain laws. This part of the book will move forward the systematic understanding of these different laws which is not only important knowledge on its own, but also much needed for the discussions about the likely effects of the European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive on national law. The research team has brought together a team of international academics to contribute to this book. For Part One, there are country experts for eight different jurisdictions. These jurisdictional chapters are complemented by further chapters that focus on current issues in Part Two. The academics are not just legal academics, but also represent other disciplines such as Political Sciences, thus making this book both an interdisciplinary and international contribution to the existing academic literature. The eight focus jurisdictions in Part One of the book are: 1) The United Kingdom: consisting of the UK Modern Slavery Act, the UK Bribery Act (insofar relevant for comparative purposes) and the proposed Business, Human Rights and Environment Bill 2) France: The French Duty of Vigilance Law 3) Germany (the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act or LkSG 4) Norway (the Norwegian Transparency Act) 5) The Netherlands (the Dutch Bill on Responsible and Sustainable Business Practices and the Dutch Child Labour Due Diligence Act) 6) Switzerland (the Swiss Due Diligence Law on Conflict Minerals and Child Labour) 7) The EU (the European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and the forced labour import ban; could, at least, touch on other relevant regulations such as the Conflict Minerals Regulation and the EU Timber Regulation) 8) US: Forced labour import bans Part Two contains the following chapters that all represent current issues in this area and are important topics to complement the legal analysis of national laws in Part One. These chapters are: 1) Enforcement 2) Financial perspectives 3) Quantitative perspective 4) Perspectives from the Global South
Start Year 2024
 
Description Academic workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact On 12 December 2024, we held a workshop, "Comparing National Supply Chain Laws for Human Rights: From the UN Guiding Principles to Corporate Practices". This workshop focused on developing academic contributions for our book through a number of panel discussions with the book contributors and workshop participants. Following from this workshop, we have reviewed and provided feedback to contributors in relation to their respective book chapters. We are in the final stages of developing a full draft of our book.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.biicl.org/events/11973/workshop-comparing-national-supply-chain-laws-for-human-rights-fr...
 
Description Development of indicators expert roundtable 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact On 16 September 2024, we held a virtual roundtable with experts from a number of human rights organizations, including the World Benchmarking Alliance, Shift, Anti-Slavery International, Wikirate, Walk Free, the Danish Institute for Human Rights, and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. In this roundtable, we focused on obtaining expert feedback on the initial stages of this project, particularly in relation to our conceptual framework and methodology, including areas of practice that we have identified for focus and an early draft of indicators.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Expert roundtable "Measuring the Effectiveness of Home State Regulatory Models on Corporate Behaviour" 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact On 13 December 2024, we held a roundtable "Measuring the Effectiveness of Home State Regulatory Models on Corporate Behaviour". This roundtable explored the different ways that effectiveness can be defined and measured in terms of indicators that can be used to compare these models with experts from human rights organizations and academia. Following from this roundtable, we have further refined how we plan to approach our framework for measuring indicator effectiveness and our scope of indicators to measure.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024