Business and Human Rights
Beyond the End of the Beginning

Explores the conceptual and legal underpinnings of global governance approaches to business and human rights, with an emphasis on the UN Guiding Principles.

César Rodriguez-Garavito (Edited by)

9781107175297, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 September 2017

218 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 1.6 cm, 0.43 kg

The regulation of business in the global economy poses one of the main challenges for governance, as illustrated by the dynamic scholarly and policy debates about the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and a possible international treaty on the matter. This book takes on the conceptual and legal underpinnings of global governance approaches to business and human rights, with an emphasis on the Guiding Principles (GPs) and attention to the current treaty process. Analyses of the GPs have tended to focus on their static dimension, such as the standards they include, rather than on their capacity to change, to push the development of new norms, and practices that might go beyond the initial content of the GPs and improve corporate compliance with human rights. This book engages both the static and dynamic dimensions of the GPs, and considers the issue through the eyes of scholars and practitioners from different parts of the world.

Introduction. A dialogue across divides in the business and human rights field César Rodríguez-Garavito
Part I. Global Governance Meets Business and Human Rights: Conceptual Debates and Regulatory Alternatives: 1. Business and human rights: beyond the end of the beginning César Rodríguez-Garavito
2. Regulating multinationals: the UN guiding principles, civil society, and international legalization John Ruggie
3. Time to move beyond the 'present': the guiding principles, a treaty or a UN declaration on business and human rights? Surya Deva
4. Putting 'human rights' back into the UN guiding principles and international law on business and human rights: shifting frames and embedding participation rights Tara J. Melish
5. From guiding principles to interpretive organizations: developing a framework for applying the UNGPs to disputes that institutionalizes the advocacy role of civil society Larry Catá Backer
6. A treaty on business and human rights? A recurring debate in a new governance landscape Claret Vargas
Part II. The Practice of Business and Human Rights: Advocacy and Regulatory Strategies: 7. Shifting power on business and human rights: states, corporations and civil society in global governance Chris Jochnick
8. Always in all ways: ensuring business respect for human rights through national action plans and inter-governmental regulatory frameworks Amol Mehra
9. Business and human rights: moving beyond the beginning Louis Bickford
10. Regulatory environment on business and human rights: paths at the international level and ideas about the roles for civil society groups Juana Kweitel
11. Committing the crime of poverty: the next phase of the business and human rights debate Bonita Meyersfeld
Conclusion. Whither the human rights movement? An ecosystemic view César Rodríguez-Garavito
Index.

Subject Areas: International human rights law [LBBR], International business [KJK], Human rights [JPVH], International relations [JPS]