International Business and Human Rights Law

2020/2021

Учебный год

ENG

Обучение ведется на английском языке

4

Кредиты

Кто читает:

Департамент международного права

Статус:

Курс обязательный

Когда читается:

2-й курс, 1, 2 модуль

Преподаватель

Асеева Анна Владимировна

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Grasping the law and governance of modern business corporation is crucial for those studying the emerging field of Business & Human Rights. Otherwise, students who have previously studied human rights-related disciplines may initially find it difficult to relate to concepts embedded in Business & Human Rights Law, such as mandatory disclosure and due diligence, and sometimes even corporate social responsibility (CSR). Likewise, traditional law, economic law, business and similar disciplines’ students familiar with business and corporate law may initially struggle with the less familiar tenets of international human rights law. This course offers students in all disciplines the necessary tools to navigate within the Business & Human Rights field.

Learning Objectives

• The main objective of this course is to provide students with the necessary tools to navigate within the Business & Human Rights field.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Basic conceptual features of the emerging discipline of International Business & Human Rights Law (IBHRL);
• Basic principles of IBHRL, its structure and mechanisms; The IBHRL terminology;
• Oral advocacy skills; Academic paper writing;
• Peer feedback; Ability to work effectively in a group;
• Practical abilities of legal research and analysis of IBHRL. Understand the purpose of the corporate form, basic corporate structure, and how corporations are regulated;
• Identify various stakeholders of the corporation; Analyze how a corporations’ separate legal personality may affect its human rights impacts;
• Compare domestic, supra-national and international human rights legal frameworks regulating corporations and their effect on corporate decision-making.

Course Contents

• Introduction to ‘International Business & Human Rights Law’
  The basic principles Is International Business & Human Rights Law (IBHRL) a ‘law’? Is IBHRL ‘international’? Specific features of IBHRL Emerging issues of and new challenges to IBHRL
• Setting the Stage: Corporate Responsibility in Context
  1. A ‘California effect’ of the Washington Consensus: Post-WWII treaty-based International Trade and Investment Law 2. Economic Context: Centre, Semi-Periphery and Periphery 3. Organizational Context: Global Value Chain Governance
• CSR Standards for and within Global Value Chains
  1. The Advent of International Standards 2. CSR: Who Needs It and Why? 3. Globalization, Technical Innovation and the Rise of Global Private Regulation 4. The Limits of CSR Regulatory Structure
• Mandatory Disclosure, Environmental and Human Rights Due Diligence, and Supply Chain Liability
  1. Supranational Law 1.1. The EU Directive on Non-Financial Disclosure 1.2. Recent EU Law on the Sustainability of Imported Commodities: the Examples of Timber and Conflict Minerals Regulations 2. International Law 2.1. UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Ahead to the Past of CSR? 2.2. Prospective UN Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights (TBHR) The TBHR Revised Draft: a Procedural and Substantive Outlook The TBHR Revised Draft: Controversial Due Diligence and Liability Provisions 2.3. OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Various Due Diligence Guidance
• Corporate Social Liability (CSL) in International Comparison
  1. Comparative Legislative Landscape 2. Comparative Litigation Landscape
• Transnational CSL Legalization
  1. Bangladesh Accord 2. Bangladesh Alliance 3. Alternative CSL Dispute Resolution through International Investment Arbitration 4. Enforcing Corporate Social Liability ex ante
• Where do we Stand Today
  1. The Pitfalls of International Arbitration for Realizing Transnational CSL 2. The Limits and Opportunities of the Interface of Domestic Private Law with Public International Law 3. Whither Corporate Social Liability?

Assessment Elements

• Classroom-based work. Online.
• Reading response. Online.
  1,000 words
• Peer feedback. Online.
• Final essay (exam). Online.
  2,500 words

Interim Assessment

• Interim assessment (2 module)
  0.2 * Classroom-based work. Online. + 0.4 * Final essay (exam). Online. + 0.2 * Peer feedback. Online. + 0.2 * Reading response. Online.

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Human Rights in the Age of Platforms. (2019). The MIT Press.

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Anthea Roberts, Paul B. Stephan, Pierre-Hugues Verdier, & Mila Versteeg. (2018). Comparative International Law. Oxford University Press.