Andreas Rühmkorf

Corporate social responsibility, private law and global supply chains

Contents: 1. Corporate Social Responsibility and Private Law 2. Company Law, Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility 3. Contract Law, Global Supply Chains and Corporate Social Responsibility 4. Consumer Protection Law and Corporate Social Responsibility 5. Tort Law and Corporate Social Responsibility 6. The Promotion of Corporate Social Responsibility in English Private Law 7. The Rana Plaza Building Collapse - Corporate Social Responsibility, Private Index

Steering CSR Through Home State Regulation: A Comparison of the Impact of the UK Bribery Act and Modern Slavery Act on Global Supply Chain Governance

The home states of multinational enterprises have in recent years sought to use public regulation to fill the gaps left by the absence of a binding labour standards framework in international law. This article examines recent home state initiatives to address forced labour, human trafficking, and slavery in global supply chains, and their interactions with private governance initiatives. Focusing on a case study of the 2015 UK Modern Slavery Act and 2010 UK Bribery Act, we analyse two distinct legislative approaches that policy makers have used to promote corporate accountability within global supply chains and explore the varied impacts that these approaches have on corporate behaviour. Empirically, we analyse codes of conduct, annual CSR reports, and supplier terms and conditions for 25 FTSE 100 companies to shed light into the impact of the legislation on corporate behaviour. We find that legislation that creates criminal corporate liability appears to spur deeper changes to corporate strategy, and argue that in the case of the Modern Slavery Act, the triumph of voluntary reporting over more stringent public labour standards seems to have undermined the effectiveness of recent governance initiatives to address forced labour in global supply chains.

Corporate Social Responsibility in der Lieferkette: Governance und Verantwortlichkeiten

Zusammenfassung Dieser Beitrag analysiert den sich entwickelnden rechtlichen Rahmen für CSR in der Lieferkette. Der Aufsatz ist eingebettet in interdisziplinäre Literatur zur Governance von globalen Lieferketten. Der Beitrag diskutiert vier nationale Gesetze, die Auswirkungen auf die Lieferketten-Governance haben: Der UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, die nationale Umsetzung der CSR-Richtlinie in Deutschland 2017, das französische devoir de vigilance Gesetz 2017 und der UK Bribery Act 2010. Die möglichen Folgen dieser Gesetze auf die Lieferketten-Governance werden dargestellt. Der Beitrag argumentiert, dass sich momentan ein Trend zu hybriden Regelungsmechanismen in globalen Lieferketten abzeichnet, in dem nationales Recht eine wichtige Rolle spielt.

From Transparency to Due Diligence Laws? Variations in Stringency of CSR Regulation in Global Supply Chains in the ‘Home State’ Of Multinational Enterprises

This chapter critically reviews the recent trend of home states of multinational enterprises to legislate CSR in global supply chains. This development can be seen as part of an attempt towards filling the governance gap for CSR in such chains. The chapter critically assesses different forms of transparency legislation on CSR such as the transparency in supply chains clause in the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015. It places the different forms of disclosure laws onto a continuum, according to their scope, legislative design and stringency as well as enforcement mechanisms. The chapter argues that the present state of disclosure laws is unable to sufficiently impact on the approach of multinational enterprises towards promoting CSR in their supply chain. It is argued that, instead, due diligence legislation should be imposed on companies. The chapter reviews the models of the UK Bribery Act and the French devoir de vigilance bill and makes the case for stringent home state legislation.

The Promotion of Corporate Social Responsibility in English Private Law

.................................................................................................................................. 1 Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................. 3 Chapter 1: The aims and the scope of the thesis ............................................... 5 1.1 Private law and Corporate Social Responsibility ............................................................... 5 1.2 The aims of the thesis: The research agenda .................................................................... 8 1.3 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 10 1.4 The scope of the thesis .................................................................................................... 12 Chapter 2: The regulatory framework of CSR; Literature review .............. 15 2.