The Concept of ‘Due Diligence’ in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: A Reply to Jonathan Bonnitcha and Robert McCorquodale

Ruggie, John Gerard; Sherman, John F.

doi:10.1093/ejil/chx047

Cited by 36 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The UNGPs constitute 'the global authoritative standard, providing a blueprint for the steps all states and businesses should take to uphold human rights' [61]. As such, they are concerned with establishing a standard of responsibility, not of liability.…”

Section: Categories Of Corporate Responsibility: What Does It Mean To 'Contribute' To Climate Change?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Business, Human Rights and Climate Due Diligence: Understanding the Responsibility of Banks

Bernaz

Macchi

2021

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Under the 2011 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), banks, like all businesses, have a responsibility to respect human rights and to carry out human rights due diligence. Although climate due diligence is not explicitly included in the UNGPs, tackling an enterprise’s direct and indirect climate change impacts is arguably a dimension of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and should form part of the human rights due diligence process. At present, it is unclear how such responsibility applies to banks, whose contribution to climate change is mostly indirect. This article addresses the research question: how should the law be interpreted to form a coherent climate due diligence standard for banks? To address it, the article first maps out the climate responsibility of banks under international soft law standards and assesses privately developed guidance. It then elucidates the emerging concept of climate due diligence, reading climate change responsibilities into the now well-established corporate responsibility to respect human rights as authoritatively elaborated in the UNGPs. Finally, it explains how such normative standard applies to banks and unpacks the key elements that a bank’s climate due diligence process should include.

show abstract

Section: Categories Of Corporate Responsibility: What Does It Mean To 'Contribute' To Climate Change?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Business, Human Rights and Climate Due Diligence: Understanding the Responsibility of Banks

Bernaz

Macchi

2021

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our study has shown the importance of rights mobilization and legal consciousness and the unique perception of injurious experience suffered by the affected community (Felstiner et al, 1980;McCann, 2010), particularly in the early stages of rights mobilization (naming and blaming), to explain the evolution of the dispute and the possible involvement of state authorities and formal legal institutions (claiming). Against the idea of law as an exogenous force, whereby access to justice should be granted to the affected community by either the international community or by privatized transnational governance (Kobrin, 2009;Ruggie, & Sherman, 2017;Scherer et al 2016), our study stressed the "constitutive power" of law (Brigham, 1996). This means to recognize that individuals and groups think as well as act on the basis of legal values and understandings that shape their perceptions, aspirations, and calculations (Ewick & Silbey, 1998;McCann, 2010).…”

Section: Dynamics Of Legalization and Privatization Of The Disputementioning

confidence: 97%

“…In line with growing attention to the emergence of transnational business governance initiatives (Bartley, 2007;Büthe & 39 Rights Mobilization Mattli, 2011;Sahlin-Andersson & Djelic, 2006), the pragmatic solution proposed by Ruggie entails that MNCs play a stronger regulatory role in filling these gaps, especially when they operate in states that lack the willingness, capacity, or resources to address human rights violations. In practice, corporations are required to adopt corporate human rights due diligence policies to see whether and how they are involved, or risk becoming involved, in human rights violations (Lambooy, 2010;Mares & Bird, 2014;Ruggie & Sherman, 2017). Also, where violations emerge, business responsibility to respect human rights requires active engagement in providing remedy to victims, by itself or in cooperation with other actors (Lukas et al, 2016;Newton, 2019).…”

Section: Business and Human Rights: Bridging Transnational And Domestmentioning

confidence: 99%

Torn between Legal Claiming and Privatized Remedy: Rights Mobilization against Gold Mining in Chile

Maher¹,

Monciardini²,

Böhm³

2020

Bus. Ethics Q.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many academic authors, policy makers, NGOs, and corporations have focused on top-down human rights global norm-making, such as the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). What is often missing are contextual and substantive analyses that interrogate rights mobilization and linkages between voluntary transnational rules and domestic governance. Deploying a socio-legal approach and using a combination of longitudinal field and archival data, this article investigates how a local, indigenous community in Northern Chile mobilized their rights over a period of almost two decades. We found that rights mobilization was largely shaped by tensions between the different logics of legality and the business organization. In our case, the UNGP implementation process has been ineffective in giving rightsholders access to genuine remedy. On the contrary, it has led to weakened rights mobilization, dividing the local community. We conclude that greater attention to rights mobilization and domestic governance dynamics should be given in the business and human rights debate.

show abstract

“…Norms matter, of course; but in anticipating disagreements between states, the GPs were intentionally limited. To the extent they carry any force, it is through their adoption as a standard by PGOs who then monitor and hold businesses to account, including critical (typically pro-business) organizations such as the International Chamber of Commerce and the International Bar Association (Ruggie and Sherman, 2017). As of March 2020, only 23 countries had adopted the recommended National Human Rights Action plans called for by the GPs.…”

Section: The Ecology Of Global Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

The organizational ecology of global governance

Lake

2020

European Journal of International Relations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The ecology of governance organizations (GOs) matters for what is or is not governed, what legitimate powers any governor may hold, and whose political preferences are instantiated in rules. The array of actors who comprise the current system of global governance has grown dramatically in recent decades. Especially notable has been the growth of private governance organizations (PGOs). Drawing on organizational ecology, I posit that the rise of PGOs is both required and facilitated by disagreements between states that block the creation of what might be otherwise effective intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). In a form of “double-negative regulation,” states block IGOs, which in turn leave open niches that are then filled by PGOs, which then both complement and sometimes substitute for state law. The organizational ecology approach outlined here extends and refocuses inquiry in systematic ways that give us a fuller understanding of how and why PGOs have emerged as one of the most striking features of the contemporary world order. The key innovations in this paper are to (a) shift the level of analysis from single agents or populations of agents to the entire field of GOs, including states, IGOs, and PGOs and (b) draw on principles of ecology to understand the composition and dynamics of systems of governance.

show abstract

The Concept of ‘Due Diligence’ in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: A Reply to Jonathan Bonnitcha and Robert McCorquodale

Cited by 36 publications

References 0 publications

Business, Human Rights and Climate Due Diligence: Understanding the Responsibility of Banks

Business, Human Rights and Climate Due Diligence: Understanding the Responsibility of Banks

Torn between Legal Claiming and Privatized Remedy: Rights Mobilization against Gold Mining in Chile

The organizational ecology of global governance

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About