Documents Bernaz, Nadia 2 results

"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."

"Developing legislation to counter the negative impacts of businesses' transnational activities on human rights and the environment is a recent trend. Supporters of such legislation have campaigned to convince policy‐makers to adopt strong law, but this legitimation process has not been theorised. Using Vaara et al.'s theoretical framework, we uncover the six discursive legitimation strategies used by the proponents of the European Union (EU) Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) to legitimise its creation. Based on interviews with proponents, we offer two main findings. First, the directive's supporters seek to reverse the narrative that legislation with extraterritorial implications is neo‐colonial by arguing instead that the neoliberal status quo exemplifies neo‐colonial exploitation. Second, non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) can convince businesses of the directive's advantages by using playing down, mimicry and rationalisation as discursive legitimation strategies. These findings have major implications for debates on how to make the CSDDD effective in regulating business operations in the Global South."