Syllabus/achievement requirements

Required reading

Articles and extraits from books marked with an asterisk (*) are available in a compilation of texts (kompendium) which can be purchased from Gnist Akademika bookstore at the Law Faculty (Domus Nova building).

Textbook:

Deva, Surya. Regulating Corporate Human Rights Violations. Humanizing Business. London: Routledge, 2012. (240 pp.)

Articles compiled in a compendium:

*Darrow, Mac, 'World Bank and International Monetary Fund', Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Dec 2009 vol. 5, pp. 373-381 (9 pp.)

*Kinley, David. Civilising globalisation. Human rights and the global economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 145-203. (68 pp).

*Langford, Malcolm 'Cosmopolitan Competition: The Case of International Investment', in Katja Aas and Cecilia Bailliet, Cosmopolitan Justice and its Discontents (London: Routledge, 2011). pp. 178–204 (26pp.)

*Mestad, Ola, “Attribution of responsibility to listed companies” in Gro Nystuen, Andreas F?llesdal and Ola Mestad (eds). Human Rights, Corporate Complicity and Disinvestment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 79-106. (27 pp.)

*Sullivan, Rory and Nicolas Hachez, “Human Rights Norms for Business: The Missing Piece of the Ruggie Jigjaw – the Case of Institutional Investors” in Radu Mares (ed). The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Right. Leiden: Nijhoff, 2012. Pp. 217-145. (28 pp.).

*Narula, Smita, “International Financial Institutions, Transnational Corporations and Duties of States”, in Malcolm Langford, Martin Scheinin, Wouter Vandenhole and Willem van Genugten (eds.). Global Justice, State Duties: The Extra-Territorial Scope of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in International Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012 (50pp).

Articles available as E-journals or E-books:

The journal articles below are available in fulltext. The UN-reports below are available online.

Campbell, John (2007), 'Why Would Corporations Behave in Socially Responsible Ways? An Institutional Theory of Corporate Social Responsibility', The Academy of Management Review, 32(3), 946-967. (22pp.)

Gillies, Alexandra, ‘Reputational Concerns and the Emergence of Oil Sector Transparency as an International Norm‘, in International Studies Quarterly, Vol.54,No.1, pp. 103–126 http://www.jstor.org/journals/00208833.html  (23pp.).

Joseph, Sarah. Blame it on the WTO? A Human Rights Critique. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Chs. 1, 8 (51 pp) http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199565894.001.0001/acprof-9780199565894 (E-book)

Palm Oil Controversy in Southeast Asia' - A Transnational Perspective, Edited by Oliver Pye and Jayati Bhattacharya, 2013, ISEAS Publishing/Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Introduction, 1-18 http://books.google.no/books?id=oQOjuA3vXkMC&lpg=PA17&ots=Qaz8YIEn7d&dq=Palm%20Oil%20Controversy%20in%20Southeast%20Asia'%20-%20A%20Transnational%20Perspective%20pdf&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false (18pp).

Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, John Ruggie. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework, March 21, 2011. UN Human Rights Council. A/HRC/17/31. (27 pp.).

Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and other business enterprises, John Ruggie, Addendum: States Obligations to Provide Access to Remedy for Human Rights Abuses by Third Parties, including Business: an Overview of International and Regional Provisions, Commentary and Decisions, 15 May 2009, UN Doc. A/HRC/11/13/Add. 1. (37 pp.).

Scruggs, Lyle, Shareen Hertel, Samuel J. Best, & Christopher Jeffords “Information, Choice and Political Consumption: Human Rights in the Checkout Lane” in Human Rights Quarterly Vol 33, No 4, 2012 (pp1092-1121) http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/human_rights_quarterly/ (E-journal). (29pp)

Ruggie, John (2014), 'A UN Business and Human Rights Treaty?', Issues Brief,  http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/CSRI/UNBusinessandHumanRightsTreaty.pdf  (5pp.)

Comments by Ruggie and Response of Surya Deva and David Bilchitz on Human Rights Obligations of Business: Beyond the Corporate Responsibility to Respect? (CUP, 2013) http://business-humanrights.org/media/ruggie-comment-surya-deva-david-bilchitz.pdf and http://www.business-humanrights.org/media/documents/surya-deva-david-bilchitz-re-ruggie-15-01-14.pdf (7 pp.)

Taylor, Mark (2012), Human Rights Due Diligence: The Role of States - 2013 Progress Report (Oslo: ICAR). http://accountabilityroundtable.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Human-Rights-Due-Diligence-The-Role-of-States.pdf (18 pp.)

Kemp D and F Vanclay, ‘Human rights and impact assessment: clarifying the connections in practice’, 3(2) Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2013,  86-96 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14615517.2013.782978 (11 pp.)

Report of the UN SR on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, Human rights impact assessments – resolving key methodological questions, 2007. http://www.reports-and-materials.org/Ruggie-report-human-rights-impact-assessments-5-Feb-2007.pdf   (25 pp.).

Sj?fjell, Beate (2012), ‘Regulating Companies as If the World Matters: Reflections from the Ongoing Sustainable Companies Project’, Wake Forest Law Review, 47(1), s 113- 134 (22 pp.) http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1964213

 

Total number of pages: 743.

 

Cases

  • Shakti v. Posco
  • SERAC v. Nigeria
  • Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum
  • Akpan v. Royal Dutch Petroleum
  • Bautista de Arellana v. Colombia

Recommended readings

Surya Deva and David Bilchitz (eds.), Human Rights Obligations of Business: Beyond the Corporate Responsibility to Respect? (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

Joseph, Sarah (2008), 'Liability of Multinational Corporations', in Malcolm Langford (ed.), Social Rights Jurisprudence: Emerging Trends in International and Comparative Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 613-627.

De Schutter, Olivier, Anita Ramasastry, Mark Taylor, and Robert Thompson (2012), Human Rights Due Diligence: The Role of States (Oslo: ICAR).

Amaeshi, Kenneth, Onyeka Osuji, and Paul Nnodin (2008), 'Corporate Social Responsibility in Supply Chains of Global Brands: A Boundaryless Responsibility? Clarifications, Exceptions and Implications', Journal of Business Ethics, 81, 223.234.

Bies, Robert, Jean Bartunek, Timothy Fort, and Mayer Zald (2007), 'Corporations as Social Change Agents: Individual, Institutional and Environmental Dynamics', The Academy of Management Review, 32(3), 788-793.

Lee, Min-Dong Paul (2008), 'A review of theories of corporate social responsibility: Its evolutionary path and the road ahead', International Journal of Management Review, 10(1), 53-73.

Nystuen, Gro, Andreas F?llesdal, and Ole Mestad (eds.) (2011), Human Rights, Corporate Complicity and Disinvestment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Palm Oil Controversy in Southeast Asia' - A Transnational Perspective, Edited by Oliver Pye and Jayati Bhattacharya, 2013, ISEAS Publishing/Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, chapter 3, 48-75.

Arnold, Luke: Deforestation in Indonesia: What's law got to do with it, Law Environment and Development Journal 4/2 (2008) 75-100.

INDIGENOUS RIGHTS VS AGRARIAN REFORM IN INDONESIA: A CASE STUDY FROM JAMBI, Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict Report No. 9.

Ruggie, Human rights impact assessments – resolving key methodological questions. Report of the UN SR on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, 2007.

Standards

OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (1976/2000/2011)

UN Global Compact (1999)

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

UN Principles for Responsible Investment (2006)

Equator Principles for the banking sector (2003)

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme in the diamonds sector (2003) and Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (2002)

ISO Standard 26000 on Social Responsibility (2010).

IAIA, Social Impact Assessment International Principles, Special Publication Series No.2. 2003.

Guides, Corporate Practices, Studies

DIHR and IPIECA, Integrating human rights into environmental, social and health impact assessments. A practical guide for the oil and gas industry, 2013.

Rights and Democracy, Human rights impact assessments for foreign investment projects: Learning from community experiences in the Philippines, Tibet, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Argentina and Peru (2007).

Nestle and DIHR, Talking the Human Rights Walk. Nestle’s experience assssing human rights impacts in its business activities, 2013.

UNICEF and DIHR, Children’s rights in impact assessments. A guide for integrating children’s rights into impact assessments and taking action for children, 2013.

Oxfam Australia, Women, communities and mining: The gender impacts of mining and the role of gender impact assessment. 2009.

Amnesty (2014), Injustice Incorporated: Corporate Abuses and the Human Right to Remedy (London: Amnesty International).

Published June 18, 2014 3:03 PM - Last modified July 22, 2014 3:24 PM