‘Business and Human Rights’ from an Asian Perspective

Abstract

Today, it is highly debated how to realize corporate due diligence across the global value chain. The question is whether and to what extent the lead company of a multinational headquartered in the U.S., Europe or Japan should be held responsible for human rights abuses or environmental damage caused by their subsidiaries, suppliers, or subcontractors in Asia and Africa. While European countries have adopted specific statutes to provide for clear standards of corporate due diligence, which will be followed by the European Union, Japan has not yet followed suit and solely adopted METI guidelines to put forth general principles. This talk considers the current state of discussion, fundamental legal norms, and viable measures to achieve corporate due diligence from an Asian perspective. Judicial remedies grounded in conflict of laws alone will not suffice and ought to be complemented by trade measures, soft law, and other means to enhance human rights protection. The ultimate objective is to overcome the north-south divide and realize shared responsibility in pursuit of common values in the international community.

Her recent chapter on the topic is available here. 

Biography

Yuko Nishitani is Professor of Private International Law at Kyoto University in Japan and Vice President of the Hague Academy of International Law. After receiving a Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg, she often did research in Europe and the U.S. She has been a Visiting Professor in Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Israel, Taiwan, and the U.S., at NYU at latest. She has served in several Legislative Committees and represented Japan at the Hague Conference on Private International Law. She is currently doing research on global governance and conflict of laws, legal pluralism, corporate due diligence, climate change, and multiculturalism in family law.

About Oxford Business and Human Rights Network & Discussion Group

The Oxford Business and Human Rights Network (OxBHR) aims to provide a forum for critical and interdisciplinary debate on issues of business and human rights. We seek to bring together academics, civil society, businesses, and practitioners for the discussion of corporate accountability for human rights violations. We have organised events that have inter alia addressed important debates on corporate complicity in human rights violations; access to remedy for victims of business-related abuses; developments and challenges in the implementation of corporate respect for human rights; regulatory developments around the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the development of a binding treaty; emerging trend towards human rights due diligence; multi-stakeholder initiatives, disclosure and reporting mechanisms; and developments in (strategic) litigation against corporate (human rights) abuse. We aim to welcome theoretical, doctrinal, empirical, and policy-oriented contributions from all relevant disciplines, covering business and human rights issues across the world and industries. The OxBHR organises public events as well as invite-only meetings to discuss work in progress, draft papers, and grant proposals.

Ayako Hatano is the convenor of the Oxford Business and Human Rights Network & Discussion Group in the 2023/24 academic year. Professor Kate O’Regan is the academic supervisor of the OxBHR.

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If you want to learn more about the OxBHR, please listen to Danilo Garrido and Isabel Bernhard presenting the OxBHR at the 2020 online Human Rights Fair.

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