Unfinished business: legalisation and implementation in business and human rights

The thesis explores the nature of transnational legalisation by identifying one emerging norm – corporate accountability for human rights violations – and tracing its promotion through three separate pathways of legalisation. At the domestic level, the thesis discusses the jurisprudence of domestic courts that have contemplated assuming extraterritorial jurisdiction over alleged human rights violations of transnational corporations (TNCs) in other states. At the international level, the thesis considers developments in the United Nations (UN), which in 2011 launched a new normative framework to bolster the accountability of TNCs in respect of human rights. At the transnational level, the thesis discusses the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs), which have been selected as representative of the range of hybrid schemes increasingly developed by government and industry representatives to ameliorate the impact of TNCs on human rights. The thesis also develops a framework with which to analyse these trends by adopting (and further developing) the liberal institutionalist tool of legalisation, which is described in Kenneth Abbott et al’s ‘The Concept of Legalisation’. This thesis argues that this classic framework can be adapted and reimagined in the context of the transnational legal system, which is characterised by thick configurations of agents working across a multiplicity of issue areas. I suggest that in applying the classic framework in the transnational context, there appears to be an omitted variable – that of implementation, which exists alongside obligation, precision, and delegation. Implementation refers to the specific actions taken by agents to translate legal or law-like principles into practical, workable instructions for courts, governments, companies and other non-state actors to follow. The thesis argues that an increased focus on implementation generally leads to more effective or greater legalisation. The empirical chapters demonstrate that efforts in implementation are often undertaken for the purpose of strengthening one or more other legalisation characteristics in the long run. This suggests that agents will be willing to accept lower levels of obligation, precision and/or delegation if they believe a focus on implementation will help strengthen these characteristics over time.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.