{"title":"Public Procurement as a Tool to Promote Sustainable Business Strategies: The Way Forward for the European Union","authors":"Michele Cozzio","doi":"10.1163/18719732-12341488","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18719732-12341488","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper describes the international and European sustainable public procurement framework. It assesses the relevance of the sustainable solutions and describes how the rules and other legal practices promote green, social and economic goals in the public procurement field. The analysis shows that the outlines of the consolidation of sustainable public procurement, at juridic levels, are emerging in Court decisions and orders from regulatory bodies. The changes affect the whole system of public procurement including the policies, rules and practices which influence business strategies. The paper also provides an overview of the transformation introduced by the 2014 European Public Procurement Directives. It focusses on the instruments available to public buyers and public authorities in order to achieve the European strategic goals included in the 2030 Agenda. Their purchasing power should be used to procure goods and services that foster innovation, respect the environment and fight climate change while improving employment, public health and social conditions, the so-called strategic use of public procurement in response to new challenges. It also examines the rules and provisions to implement Green Public Procurement (<span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">GPP</span>) and Socially Responsible Public Procurement (<span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">SRPP</span>) existing at EU Member States level. Finally, the paper discusses the level of commitment, the business strategies in place to implement, monitor and review sustainable public procurement as well as showcases ongoing organisational good practices and innovative project.</p>","PeriodicalId":43487,"journal":{"name":"International Community Law Review","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138531574","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Public International Law Outlook on Business and Human Rights","authors":"Ludovica Chiussi Curzi, Camille Malafosse","doi":"10.1163/18719732-bja10070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18719732-bja10070","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The relationship between corporations and human rights has long been in the eye of international law. As the nature and reach of corporate actors make them impervious targets for domestic regulation, international law has become increasingly concerned with the adverse impact of business activities on human rights and the environment. This article critically examines the major existing international regulatory initiatives on business and human rights from the lens of public international law. First, we will explore the major challenges faced by international law in addressing corporate activities. Second, the core non-binding instruments adopted in the past decades will be examined, highlighting the progressive incorporation of some of their key standards in domestic legislation. Third, the increasingly relevant role of some of the business and human rights standards in domestic and international litigation will be examined. Fourth, we will look at the path towards a treaty on business and human rights. The argument will be made that although binding regulation is not a panacea for the multifaceted problem of corporate human rights liability it can provide a useful tool to harmonize domestic legislation and to give teeth to the existing non-binding instruments.</p>","PeriodicalId":43487,"journal":{"name":"International Community Law Review","volume":"77 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138531578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Contract as an Instrument Achieving Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Goals","authors":"Laura Valle, Maria Chiara Marullo","doi":"10.1163/18719732-12341485","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18719732-12341485","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As a positive influence of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">OECD</span> Guidelines, in the last years many multinational companies have adopted practices and standards of protection of human rights and the environment. However, these practices have proven to be insufficient when looking at the harmful events involving human rights and environmental resources, which seems even more problematic in the current context of sanitary and socioeconomic crisis derived from the covid-19 pandemic. On the other hand, these past few years have also seen the adoption of legal provisions on non-financial communications of large enterprises, some sectorial regulations at the EU level and national laws on human rights and environmental due diligence duties, which could help to overcome the situation described above. This article aims at analysing whether and how, in the current and future legal framework, contractual instruments can contribute to the goal of human rights and environmental protection as regards business activities and how important their role can be in terms of sustainability and corporate social responsibility.</p>","PeriodicalId":43487,"journal":{"name":"International Community Law Review","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138531580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From ‘Due Diligence’ to ‘Adequate Redress’. Towards Compulsory Human Rights and Environmental Insurance for Companies?","authors":"Stephen J. Turner, Claire Bright","doi":"10.1163/18719732-12341487","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18719732-12341487","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article considers the case for compulsory corporate human rights and environmental insurance. It approaches it within the context of the need for more effective, efficient and just systems of redress for the victims of human rights and environmental harm that is caused by companies where they have operations or supply chains in single or multiple jurisdictions. Developments within the field of corporate responsibility for human rights and environmental issues have led to a variety of different initiatives that range from the UN ‘protect, respect, and remedy’ framework and the associated human rights due diligence (<span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">HRDD</span>) framework, to specific legal developments in certain jurisdictions and other schemes developed by international organisations, as well as by civil-society and businesses themselves. From the perspective of corporate law, these changes have taken place within a legal framework that has certain features that have hindered the availability of remedies for victims of associated human rights and environmental harm. This article problematises the issue of redress for corporate human rights violations and environmental degradation within the context of international developments in this field. It considers whether there is a <em>prima facie</em> case for the establishment of a comprehensive compulsory human rights and environmental insurance regime for companies that would require them to operate to a high standard of care in their operations, and which would ultimately provide a more straightforward system of redress for victims.</p>","PeriodicalId":43487,"journal":{"name":"International Community Law Review","volume":"77 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138531579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From CSR to HRDD: An Overview of Approaches, Initiatives and Measures Adopted by the European Union","authors":"Monica Rosini","doi":"10.1163/18719732-bja10072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18719732-bja10072","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In recent years, the European Union has done much to promote Corporate Social Responsibility (<span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">CSR</span>) and to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (<span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">UNGP</span>s). Through <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">CSR</span>, enterprises can contribute to the EU objectives of sustainable development and a competitive social market economy. For these purposes, the EU has used a smart mix of voluntary and mandatory actions. The paper provides an overview of these actions, starting from the 2001 Green Paper of the Commission. In particular, it will focus on the renewed EU strategy 2011–14 for <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">CSR</span>, which combines horizontal approaches to promote <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">CSR</span> with more specific strategies for individual sectors or policy areas. This document is a significant turning point because it offers a modern understanding of <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">CSR</span> as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impact on society”. This new definition implies its possible configuration as a set of rules able to assume legal value and to produce legal effects. Thus, the paper analyzes the most significant actions and instruments adopted by the EU for the implementation of the 2011–14 strategy and the new notion of <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">CSR</span>. This analysis will make it possible to grasp the gradual evolution of the EU approach to <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">CSR</span> towards mandatory instruments, such as directives and regulations. In the most recent period, the EU approach seems more strongly oriented towards the adoption of mandatory due diligence legislation to enforce companies’ socially responsible behavior in the post-Covid context. In conclusion, the paper addresses the role played by the EU in supporting and, where necessary, enforcing companies to conduct their business responsibly.</p>","PeriodicalId":43487,"journal":{"name":"International Community Law Review","volume":"1101 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138531581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mugemangango v. Belgium: No Exceptions for “Old Democracies”","authors":"James R. Brakebill","doi":"10.1163/18719732-bja10058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18719732-bja10058","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In Mugemangango v. Belgium, the European Court of Human Rights clarified its case law regarding the right to vote and stand for election. By holding that Belgium’s longstanding tradition of allowing parliamentary review of election disputes violates guarantees of fairness and impartiality, the Court made clear that it would not interpret Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 as providing an exception for so-called “old democracies.” In doing so, the Court sent a clear message to other member states with similar systems of parliamentary review that their procedures may not be in compliance with the Convention.","PeriodicalId":43487,"journal":{"name":"International Community Law Review","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88689000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime: between Self Help and Global Governance","authors":"Nathanael Tilahun","doi":"10.1163/18719732-bja10067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18719732-bja10067","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000By adopting a Global Human Rights Sanctions regime, the European Union took a new step in leveraging its power to respond to human rights violations globally. The regime has a general scope, and targets both state and non-state actors. This paper shows that this regime occupies a tension zone between two competing approaches to sanctions: a self-help approach that perceives sanctions as deriving authority from states’ sovereignty and subservient to their foreign policy, and a global governance approach that views sanctions as deriving authority from and bound by the objectives of specific international legal regimes they enforce. The tension between these approaches comes into stark view when constructing the listing criteria and policy objectives of the sanctions, which determine the scope of targets and duration of measures. Whether and how subsequent practice resolves this tension will be determined by certain legislative and interpretive moves by the EU Council and Court.","PeriodicalId":43487,"journal":{"name":"International Community Law Review","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87872318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gaps in Corporate Liability","authors":"Jelena Aparac","doi":"10.1163/18719732-23050005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18719732-23050005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Fact-finding is a fundamental step in providing documentation that can be used in domestic and international proceedings. The United Nations establishes commissions of inquiry to investigate international law violations, often in contexts of armed conflict, under the mandate of the Human Rights Council or other more political organs of the UN. They vary in mandate, as well as in investigative and geographic scope. However, to this day, fact-finding mechanisms or inquiry commissions have only rarely conducted investigations into corporate crimes, even in cases where the UN has explicitly recognized the part played by economic actors in armed conflicts. Because corporations are not subjects of international law, they are presumed not to have any direct obligations under international law. Moreover, the mandates of fact-finding missions de facto exclude corporations from investigations because such mandates are always designed to investigate international law violations. By voluntarily dismissing any investigation of corporate crimes, the UN is significantly limiting prospects for corporate responsibility and impeding the process of transitional justice.","PeriodicalId":43487,"journal":{"name":"International Community Law Review","volume":"7 4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90911643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Drafting an International Legally Binding Instrument on Business and Human Rights","authors":"Elżbieta Karska","doi":"10.1163/18719732-23050004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18719732-23050004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article deals with the process of creating a convention in the field of human rights, the working name of which is the ‘International Legally Binding Instrument on Business and Human Rights’. The author analyses the existing legal grounds for the responsibility of business for human rights violations in international law. She has assessed non-binding instruments, leading her to draw the conclusion that mechanisms strengthening protection are required in human rights protection law. The process of the creation of a new convention itself is subjected to an in-depth review. A special place is given to the issue of the position of a victim of human rights violations committed as a result of the activity of transnational enterprises, the rights of the victims of such violations and the mechanisms of international cooperation in the combatting thereof. In the conclusion the author states that human rights require actions that move beyond existing divisions, and that the work of the intergovernmental group led by Ecuador should be seriously supported by the European Union and the United States.","PeriodicalId":43487,"journal":{"name":"International Community Law Review","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87394131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Legal Position of Administrative Courts in Poland","authors":"M. Wiącek","doi":"10.1163/18719732-23050007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18719732-23050007","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The article concerns the administrative judiciary in Poland. Firstly, the Author discusses the legal bases (in particular, the constitutional bases) and the scope of competence of Polish administrative courts, that is to say the ‘voivodeship’ administrative courts (courts of first instance) and the Supreme Administrative Court (court of second instance). Administrative courts in Poland are, in general, the “courts of cassation”, which means they may only control the legality of administrative decisions and may not determine the state of facts, nor replace administrative decisions by their judgments. Administrative courts are vested with the competence to apply the Constitution and they actively cooperate with the Constitutional Tribunal (in particular, by addressing ‘questions of law’ to the Tribunal). Secondly, the Author presents the scope of competence of the Commercial and Financial Chambers of the Supreme Administrative Court and considers selected legal problems in the administrative courts’ jurisprudence in commercial and financial cases.","PeriodicalId":43487,"journal":{"name":"International Community Law Review","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85590277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}