scholarly journals Liability for the Violation of Human Rights and Labour Standards in Global Supply Chains: A Common Law Perspective

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Louis Cabrelli
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Labour Standards

scholarly journals Extraterritoriality and public procurement regulation in the context of global supply chains’ governance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Anna Corvaglia ◽  
Kevin Li
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Multilateral Trade ◽  
The World ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Domestic Regulation

With the globalisation of supply chains, the respect for human rights and labour standards in procurement practices has become a crucial priority also in the domestic regulation of public procurement. This paper focuses on two specific characteristics of the use of public procurement regulation for the enforcement of human rights and labour standards: its extraterritorial effects on companies and firms across different jurisdictions and its reliance on private certifications and labels. Both of these new aspects are evident within the new 2014 EU Procurement Directives, which includes a number of far-reaching regulatory features that facilitate the monitoring of the respect for human rights and labour standards of contractors and subcontractors across borders. However, this new dimension of public procurement has the potential to create tension within the framework of multilateral trade governance, specifically, the World Trade Organization (WTO) trade regime.

scholarly journals Mind the gap: Grass roots ‘brokering’ to improve labour standards in global supply chains

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 584-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J Kaine ◽  
Emmanuel Josserand
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Whistle Blowing ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Implementation Gaps

While governance and regulation are a first step in addressing worsening working conditions in global supply chains, improving implementation is also key to reversing this trend. In this article, after examining the nature of the existing governance and implementation gaps in labour standards in global supply chains, we explore how Viet Labor, an emerging grass-roots organization, has developed practices to help close them. This involves playing brokering roles between different workers and between workers and existing governance mechanisms. We identify an initial typology of six such roles: educating, organizing, supporting, collective action, whistle-blowing and documenting. This marks a significant shift in the way action to improve labour standards along the supply chain is analysed. Our case explores how predominantly top-down approaches can be supplemented by bottom-up ones centred on workers’ agency.

scholarly journals Integrating Human Rights and the Environment in Supply Chain Regulations

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 9666
Author(s):  
Almut Schilling-Vacaflor
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Equal Weight ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy Integration ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Society Business ◽  
Legal Norms

To address the negative externalities associated with global trade, countries in the Global North have increasingly adopted supply chain regulations. While global supply chains cause or contribute to interconnected environmental and human rights impacts, I show that supply chain regulations often exclusively target one policy domain. Furthermore, an analysis of the first experiences with the implementation of the French Duty of Vigilance law, which covers and gives equal weight to environmental and human rights risks, reveals that the inclusion of environmental and human rights standards in legal norms is not sufficient to ensure policy integration. The empirical focus here is on the soy and beef supply chains from Brazil to the European Union (EU), and the findings rely on an analysis of legal norms and company reports, field research at producing sites in Brazil and semi-structured interviews with civil society, business and state actors. For analyzing the data, I draw on the literature on environmental policy integration (EPI) and apply a framework that distinguishes between institutional, political and cognitive factors to discuss advances and challenges for integrating human rights and the environment in sustainability governance. The study concludes that more integrated approaches for regulating global supply chains would be needed to enable ‘just sustainability’.

Socially responsible global supply chains

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Hemphill ◽  
Keith J. Kelley
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Global Supply Chain ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Building Safety ◽  
Rights Issue ◽  
Rights Issues

Purpose This paper aims to address the viability of two recent initiatives proposed to address the important human rights issue of employee and building safety among manufacturers in the global supply chain: the recently proposed “Shared Responsibility Paradigm” now being considered by concerned stakeholders as a new approach to understanding human rights issues across global supply chains and the proposed International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 45001 comprehensive framework for management systems addressing occupational health and safety. Design/methodology/approach First, the paper establishes a theoretical foundation for these two initiatives as practical and implementable solutions for this human rights issue and includes a section addressing the results of recent academic research on social responsibility in global supply chains. The paper then provides a detailed description of the shared responsibility paradigm and the ISO 45001 health and safety standard, respectively, followed by a discussion of their viability, policy implications and directions for future research. Findings Recent developments pertaining to the implementation of the ISO 45001 standard and the unveiling of the World Economic Forum’s shared responsibility model offer aspirational hope for a multi-stakeholder solution to successfully addressing serious human rights issues related to employee safety in Bangladesh and other least developed countries. Originality/value This paper offers an early viability assessment of the two recent initiatives proposed to address the important human rights issue of employee and building safety among manufacturers in the global supply chain: the “Shared Responsibility Paradigm” and the proposed ISO 45001 standard for worker health and safety.

scholarly journals The domestic politics of corporate accountability legislation: struggles over the 2015 UK Modern Slavery Act

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 709-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genevieve LeBaron ◽  
Andreas Rühmkorf
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Transnational Governance ◽  
Corporate Accountability ◽  
Regulatory Processes ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Domestic Legislation ◽  
Labour Standards

AbstractOver the last decade, the norm of corporate accountability for labour standards in global supply chains has become increasingly prominent within the transnational governance arena. As global governance initiatives to spur due diligence for labour standards and combat exploitation in global supply chains—especially its most severe forms frequently described as modern slavery—have proliferated, societal coalitions have pressured states to pass domestic legislation to the same effect. In this article, we examine the regulatory processes that spurred the passage of one piece of anti-slavery legislation, the UK’s 2015 Modern Slavery Act. Our findings corroborate a number of established expectations regarding business opposition towards new legislation to raise public labour standards, but also provide a clearer picture of the mechanisms through which industry actors impact policymaking processes. Paradoxically, such mechanisms include business actors’ championing of weak regulatory initiatives, CSR activity and partnering with civil society organizations. Understanding industry actors’ use of these strategies improves our understanding of how transnational norms of corporate accountability and anti-slavery are being contested and shaped at domestic scales.

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