After the endorsement of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) by the Human Rights Council on 16 June 2011, 15 March 2024 marked another milestone for transnational corporate governance. That day, a qualified majority of the member states of the European Union (EU) voted in favour of the Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDDD) setting human rights and environmental obligations for large companies in their global value chains.¹ The CSDDD is the first region-wide due diligence legislation, yet it is also a political compromise among EU member states, which civil society and business have been watching closely. This piece explains the main elements of the CSDDD and outlines some of its implications beyond the EU.

Multinational corporations may play a significant role in contemporary conflicts both directly or indirectly by contributing to the financing of activities of warring armed groups. The international attention to this problem has recently been integrated into the efforts to develop the regulatory framework covering activities and working methods of corporate actors that impact negatively on human rights. This article analyses the initiatives to develop standards to regulate corporate behaviour affecting human rights in conflict zones. In particular, it studies the initiatives taken to prevent corporate involvement in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through the exploitation and trade of so-called ‘conflict minerals’. Its main focus is the developing standard of human rights due diligence for corporations, and how international and State practice may be contributing to its transformation from a voluntary standard to measure corporate compliance with social expectations into a potential normative standard.

Ten years since the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we have witnessed an increasing trend in Europe toward the adoption of mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence. Focusing on due diligence legislation from France, Germany, Norway, and the EU, this article examines the extent to which these laws are laying the foundations for the articulation of an integrated, comprehensive, and robust framework that effectively fosters corporate accountability through preventing, addressing, and remedying corporate‐related human rights and environmental harms. In this examination, we draw on international human rights and environmental standards and Third World Approaches to International Law, to identify the lessons learned from current approaches and that ought to be considered in future frameworks.

This article explores the innovative use of public procurement as a tool to respect, protect and promote human rights by capitalizing on the significant leverage that public buyers have over corporate practices in their supply chain. It provides an analysis of Electronics Watch, an organization that focuses on the role of states’ own procurement practices as central to the state duty to protect the human rights of those who are affected by its activities as an economic actor. Through the assessment of the Electronics Watch model this article argues that by bringing together the economic leverage of public buyers and corporate human rights due diligence, one can create transformative tools for the improvement of working conditions in global supply chains.

Several scandals involving well-known electronics brands have highlighted the exploitative and unsafe conditions under which many workers operate in the industry's long and complex supply chains. As large-scale consumers of electronic goods, public buyers potentially hold significant leverage over the behaviour of their suppliers through their buying power. Consequently, public procurement has the potential to be a significant influence on these supply chains and ultimately the human rights of those working in them. This article critically assesses legal options for the promotion of social considerations in the supply chain, considering in particular the potential of the European Union legal regime for public procurement as a tool for improving working conditions and human rights in the electronics industry supply chain.