Value Chain Due Diligence and the Identification and Assessment of Adverse Environmental Impacts in the Practice of National Contact Points of the OECD

This article examines how the identification and assessment (I&A) of adverse environmental impacts (AEI) within corporate value-chain due diligence (VCDD) norms under the Guidelines of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is normatively designed, and how it can be distinguished from similar legal requirements that already bind corporations to perform environmental impact assessments (EIAs). Through a systematic analysis of specific instances of National Contact Points (NCPs), the article investigates how these expectations have been interpreted and applied in practice in environmental disputes raising claims concerning the I&A due diligence stage. The findings highlight inconsistencies in how NCPs handle such claims and showcase the interpretative divergences concerning the ways in which they perceive the interplay between these VCDD expectations and other host-state legal requirements that bind corporations to conduct assessments of environmental impacts. Based on the analysis, the article then reflects on the specificities of I&A expectations, as well as on avenues for future research. The research argues that VCDD requirements for corporations to identify and assess adverse environmental impacts should be interpreted as setting independent normative commands that warrant a specific compliance assessment. The article concludes by issuing recommendations concerning the ways in which I&A expectations should be interpreted in practice to avoid blurring the boundaries between two distinct layers of home- and host-state regulation.