{"title":"Decent Work in the Cross-Border Supply Chain: A Smart Mix of Legislation and Self-Regulation","authors":"Femke G. Laagland","doi":"10.1515/ecfr-2023-0013","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract 336 This paper deals with the problem of European companies trading with companies in developing countries where fundamental labour rights are being violated. For a long time, this issue was left to the responsibility of European companies on a voluntary basis. Recently, a shift towards hard law in the sense of legal obligations has become visible. The European Commission started a legislative process in 2021 and published a proposal for a due diligence Directive in February 2022 to which the European Parliament responded in first reading on 1 June 2023. In the meanwhile, France and Germany passed legislation, and in the Netherlands and Belgium a private member’s bill was submitted by members of Parliament. All in all, a lot is happening on this subject at both European and national level. Much has been written about the proposals as such but the issue of fundamental labour rights has been underexposed. This paper fills that gap. Central question is as to what extent legislation will lead to an improvement in compliance with fundamental labour rights in the cross-border supply chain. This paper will explore this question on the basis of the said European and national legislative initiatives. It will become clear that the solution lies much more in a mix of hard law and self-regulation and that in the search for a smart mix, lessons can be learned from the Dutch system of private sector-specific agreements. 337","PeriodicalId":54052,"journal":{"name":"European Company and Financial Law Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Company and Financial Law Review","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ecfr-2023-0013","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"LAW","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract 336 This paper deals with the problem of European companies trading with companies in developing countries where fundamental labour rights are being violated. For a long time, this issue was left to the responsibility of European companies on a voluntary basis. Recently, a shift towards hard law in the sense of legal obligations has become visible. The European Commission started a legislative process in 2021 and published a proposal for a due diligence Directive in February 2022 to which the European Parliament responded in first reading on 1 June 2023. In the meanwhile, France and Germany passed legislation, and in the Netherlands and Belgium a private member’s bill was submitted by members of Parliament. All in all, a lot is happening on this subject at both European and national level. Much has been written about the proposals as such but the issue of fundamental labour rights has been underexposed. This paper fills that gap. Central question is as to what extent legislation will lead to an improvement in compliance with fundamental labour rights in the cross-border supply chain. This paper will explore this question on the basis of the said European and national legislative initiatives. It will become clear that the solution lies much more in a mix of hard law and self-regulation and that in the search for a smart mix, lessons can be learned from the Dutch system of private sector-specific agreements. 337
期刊介绍:
In legislation and in case law, European law has become a steadily more dominant factor in determining national European company laws. The “European Company”, the forthcoming “European Private Company” as well as the Regulation on the Application of International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS Regulation”) have accelerated this development even more. The discussion, however, is still mired in individual nations. This is true for the academic field and – even still – for many practitioners. The journal intends to overcome this handicap by sparking a debate across Europe on drafting and application of European company law. It integrates the European company law component previously published as part of the Zeitschrift für Unternehmens- und Gesellschaftsrecht (ZGR), on of the leading German law reviews specialized in the field of company and capital market law. It aims at universities, law makers on both the European and national levels, courts, lawyers, banks and other financial service institutions, in house counsels, accountants and notaries who draft or work with European company law. The journal focuses on all areas of European company law and the financing of companies and business entities. This includes the law of capital markets as well as the law of accounting and auditing and company law related issues of insolvency law. Finally it serves as a platform for the discussion of theoretical questions such as the economic analysis of company law. It consists of articles and case notes on both decisions of the European courts as well as of national courts insofar as they have implications on European company law.