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18 N.Y.U. J.L. & Bus. 773 (2021-2022)
Reimagining Corporate Accountability: Moving beyond Human Rights Due Diligence

handle is hein.journals/nyujolbu18 and id is 786 raw text is: NEW YORK UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF LAW & BUSINESS VOLUME 18 SUMMER 2022 NUMBER 3 REIMAGINING CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY: MOVING BEYOND HUMAN RIGHTS DUE DILIGENCE* RACHEL CHAMBERS** & JENA MARTIN*** The global movement towards the adoption of human rights due dili- gence laws is gaining momentum. Starting in France, moving to Germany, and now at the European Union level, lawmakers are heeding the call to mandate that companies conduct human rights due diligence throughout their global operations. The situation in the United States is very different: although ESG (environmental, social, and governance) has received in- creasing national attention, there is currently no law that mandates corpo- rate human rights due diligence. Recognizing this disparity and acknowledging the specific context for ESG-related issues in the United States, we consider how the United States could provide clarity and direction to corporate America and global leader- ship on business and human rights. Our assessment reveals that while due diligence models have rapidly become the global standard for increasing cor- porate human rights accountability, there is concern that the legislative frameworks being adopted in Europe fail to live up to their promise. We assess a bold and novel legislative proposition for the United States: a human rights due diligence law that is patterned after the influential anti-bribery statute, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The proposal-which * Earlier versions of this Article were presented at a workshop organized by the Business and Human Rights Initiative at the University of Connecticut in March 2021 and at the Academy of Legal Studies in Business Conference in August 2021. The authors are grateful to John Anderson, Robert Bird, Molly Land, Stephen Park, and Tara Van Ho for their helpful comments and to Bettina Braun for her research assistance. Research for this article was supported, in part, by a Hodges's Faculty Research Grant (West Virginia University). ** Assistant Professor of Business Law, University of Connecticut School of Business. *** Robert L. Shuman, Professor of Law and Ethics, West Virginia Uni- versity. 773 Imaged with Permission of N.Y.U. Journal of Law & Business