Incorporating Rights: Strategies to Advance Corporate Accountability, Erika George (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021)

IF 2.3 Q3 BUSINESS
Tim Bartley
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

A lot has happened since 2005, when the late John Ruggie was appointed as the UN Special Representative on human rights and transnational corporations.Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) have continued to grow, despite concerns about their limited accomplishments. NGOs have developed a variety of score cards to rank the human rights and sustainability practices of leading brands and retailers. ESG (environmental, social and governance) ratings have moved into themainstreamof the investmentworld, spurring debates aboutwhether they are meaningful and ‘material’ to corporate returns. Recently, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights – which Ruggie helped to forge – have inspired an EU draft directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence, moving towards mandatory rather than voluntary standards. In Incorporating Rights, Erika George makes a hopeful argument about how these types of initiatives – particularly the voluntary ones – can gradually lead to greater respect for the human rights of workers in labour-intensive industries, communities in extractive zones, and individuals subject to high-tech surveillance. While occasionally acknowledging limitations, she argues that MSIs, score cards and demand from responsible investors and consumers have combined to make attention to human rights essentially obligatory rather than voluntary for large corporations. This is especially significant, she argues, because international law offers few meaningful paths for corporations to be held accountable to human rights norms, especially as courts have narrowed the scope of extra-territorial claims. In essence, George carries on Ruggie’s legacy in making the case that norms for international business are changing and that this is no small accomplishment. Empirically, George traces the discourse of corporate social responsibility in several large food/beverage, apparel/footwear, oil/gas and information technology companies (e.g., Coca-Cola, Adidas, ExxonMobil and Microsoft). Looking over time, she shows that human rights were increasingly incorporated into policies and reports as the companies faced controversies (roughly 2005 to 2017 in most cases). Beyond this, George draws on her observations of various meetings (e.g., UN Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights) and interviews with developers of MSIs and score cards to paint a multi-faceted portrait of the expectations that large companies face to respect human rights throughout their global operations and supply chains. In each chapter, she examines a different piece of the puzzle – such as business and human rights norms, MSIs, score cards, shareholder and consumer pressures – highlighting the evolution and expansion of expectations. Her analysis ends prior to the development of the EU mandatory due diligence directive – and earlier laws, such as the French Corporate Duty of Vigilance law, are not in her purview – but these developments would seemingly bolster her overall point: global human rights have become institutionalized as part of the ‘social license to operate’ for large transnational corporations.
《纳入权利:推进企业责任的战略》,艾丽卡·乔治著(纽约:牛津大学出版社,2021年)
自2005年已故的约翰·鲁吉被任命为联合国人权和跨国公司问题特别代表以来,发生了很多事情。多方利益攸关方倡议继续增长,尽管人们担心其成果有限。非政府组织开发了各种记分卡,对领先品牌和零售商的人权和可持续发展做法进行排名。ESG(环境、社会和治理)评级已进入投资界的主流,引发了关于它们对公司回报是否有意义和“实质性”的争论。最近,Ruggie帮助制定的《联合国商业与人权指导原则》激发了欧盟关于企业可持续性尽职调查的指令草案,朝着强制性而非自愿性标准迈进。在《融入权利》一书中,Erika George提出了一个充满希望的论点,即这些类型的倡议——特别是自愿倡议——如何逐渐导致对劳动密集型行业工人、采掘区社区和受高科技监控的个人的人权的更大尊重。虽然偶尔承认存在局限性,但她认为,MSIs、记分卡以及负责任的投资者和消费者的要求结合在一起,使大公司对人权的关注基本上是强制性的,而不是自愿的。她认为,这一点尤其重要,因为国际法几乎没有为公司对人权规范负责提供有意义的途径,尤其是在法院缩小了域外索赔范围的情况下。从本质上讲,乔治继承了鲁吉的遗产,证明国际商业规范正在改变,这是一项不小的成就。从经验上讲,乔治追溯了几家大型食品/饮料、服装/鞋类、石油/天然气和信息技术公司(如可口可乐、阿迪达斯、埃克森美孚和微软)关于企业社会责任的论述。随着时间的推移,她表明,随着公司面临争议,人权越来越多地被纳入政策和报告中(在大多数情况下,大约是2005年至2017年)。除此之外,乔治还利用她对各种会议(如联合国商业与人权年度论坛)的观察,以及对MSIs和记分卡开发者的采访,从多个方面描绘了大公司在全球运营和供应链中尊重人权的期望。在每一章中,她都会研究不同的谜题——比如商业和人权规范、MSIs、记分卡、股东和消费者压力——强调期望的演变和扩大。她的分析在欧盟强制性尽职调查指令制定之前就结束了——早期的法律,如法国的《企业警戒义务法》,不在她的职权范围内——但这些发展似乎支持了她的总体观点:全球人权已经制度化,成为大型跨国公司“经营社会许可证”的一部分。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
3.30
自引率
13.60%
发文量
41
期刊介绍: The Business and Human Rights Journal (BHRJ) provides an authoritative platform for scholarly debate on all issues concerning the intersection of business and human rights in an open, critical and interdisciplinary manner. It seeks to advance the academic discussion on business and human rights as well as promote concern for human rights in business practice. BHRJ strives for the broadest possible scope, authorship and readership. Its scope encompasses interface of any type of business enterprise with human rights, environmental rights, labour rights and the collective rights of vulnerable groups. The Editors welcome theoretical, empirical and policy / reform-oriented perspectives and encourage submissions from academics and practitioners in all global regions and all relevant disciplines. A dialogue beyond academia is fostered as peer-reviewed articles are published alongside shorter ‘Developments in the Field’ items that include policy, legal and regulatory developments, as well as case studies and insight pieces.
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