Business and Human Rights

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The University of Connecticut School of Business hosts The Business and Human Rights Initiative, which “seeks to develop and support multidisciplinary and engaged research, education, and public outreach at the intersection of business and human rights.” Professor Stephen Park, Director of the Business and Human Rights Initiative, invited me to be a discussant at the most recent meeting of the Initiative’s workshop series. The workshop focused on Rachel Chambers’ and Jena Martin’s excellent paper, A Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for Human Rights. Here’s an abstract:

The global movement towards the adoption of human rights due diligence laws is gaining momentum. Starting in France, moving to the Netherlands, and now at the European Union level, lawmakers across Europe are accepting the need to legislate to require that companies conduct human rights due diligence throughout their global operations. The situation in the United States is very different: on the federal level there is currently no law that mandates corporate human rights due diligence. Civil society organization International Corporate Accountability Roundtable is stepping into the breach with a legislative proposal building on the model of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to prohibit corporations from engaging in grave human rights…

Welcome to the final guest blog discussing the work of the ULC study committee that focuses on coercive labor practices.  In previous blogs I have discussed other frameworks the study committee is considering, including disclosure-based regimes and frameworks that are centered on procurement.  In this final blog, I will examine what some consider the next frontier for combating coercive labor practices in supply chains: mandatory human rights due diligence.   

More after the jump …

Welcome to the ongoing guest blog that discusses the work of the ULC study committee that focuses on coercive labor practices.  In the last two blogs (here and here) I discussed two frameworks the study committee was considering: one that focuses on disclosure and one that examines labor procurement. Both of these frameworks rely on the government-as-regulator model. In this next blog I examine the government-as-purchaser model, one that would harness the enormous buying power of many of our states into a uniform law. 

More after the jump …

            Welcome to the 3rd in a series of 5 guest blogs discussing the work that I have done as a reporter for the ULC study committee on coercive labor practices in supply chains. In this blog, I want to provide a deeper dive into another regulatory options the study committee is reviewing: the use of labor procurement laws.

More after the jump…

Since 1892, the Uniform Law Commission has deeply affected the practice of law – especially business law.  Uniform Acts like the Revised Uniform Partnership Act (RUPA) and the Uniform LLC Act are typical examples of the types of frameworks that the ULC typically develops. They are laws that serve as a guide to private transactions and civil liability.  Perhaps the most famous example of this has been the Uniform Commercial Code.

More recently however, the ULC has begun to study, draft, and approve laws that, if adopted, would expand its traditional scope – providing more regulatory and criminal oversight of various issues rather than more commercial transactions.

More after the jump…