Volume 10 : 1
Editorial Introduction: The Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights: The Emerging European Union Regime
The New EU Rules on Non-Financial Reporting: Potential Impacts on Access to Remedy?
Human Rights in Global Supply Chains: Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Procurement in the European Union
Business and Human Rights Abuses: Claiming Compensation under the Brussels I Recast
The Enforcement of Corporate Human Rights Due Diligence: From the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to the Legal Systems of EU Countries
State Commitment in Implementing the UNGPs and the Emerging Regime of National Action Plans: A Comparative Analysis
Cleaning Dirty Hands? Some Thoughts on Private Companies, Migration and CSR in the European Union
Towards a Holistic Approach to Business and Human Rights in the European Union
Editorial Introduction: The Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights: The Emerging European Union Regime
The New EU Rules on Non-Financial Reporting: Potential Impacts on Access to Remedy?
Human Rights in Global Supply Chains: Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Procurement in the European Union
Business and Human Rights Abuses: Claiming Compensation under the Brussels I Recast
The Enforcement of Corporate Human Rights Due Diligence: From the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to the Legal Systems of EU Countries
State Commitment in Implementing the UNGPs and the Emerging Regime of National Action Plans: A Comparative Analysis
Cleaning Dirty Hands? Some Thoughts on Private Companies, Migration and CSR in the European Union
Towards a Holistic Approach to Business and Human Rights in the European Union
Year
2016
Volume
10
Number
1
Page
160
Language
English
Court
Reference
J. LETNAR ?ERNI?, “Towards a Holistic Approach to Business and Human Rights in the European Union”, HRILD 2016, nr. 1, 160-180
Recapitulation
The global business environment has changed rapidly in the past few decades. Some corporations have faced sharp declines in revenues, whereas others, particularly from Asian and South American countries, have taken over the position once held by corporations from France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA. At the same time, the discourse on business and human rights has not advanced as quickly as fragmentation and developments in the business environment. The current debate not only in the European Union (EU) but also elsewhere reflects two approaches related to human rights and business that have been articulated in the past two decades. The European Union’s policies on business and human rights have in the past preferred the corporate social responsibility approach while at times avoiding a more focused approach to improving ‘hard law’ initiatives and enhancing victims’ access to justice, particularly when enforcing the accountability of European corporations for an alleged human rights impact beyond European borders. By focusing on the voluntary dimensions of business and human rights, such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, one risks neglecting many of the normative processes that play an equally important role in the regulation of corporations. Some ‘hard law’ documents adopted in the past few years suggest that EU member states and European institutions are committed to finding a ‘reasonable equilibrium’ between voluntary and binding initiatives. Equipped with this knowledge, this article submits that, for an EU regulation to be effective and legitimate, the only viable concept of law is a holistic approach that merges the voluntary with the more substantive hard law approach.