CYIL vol. 10 (2019)

CYIL 10 ȍ2019Ȏ

BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Pavel Šturma and Vinícius Almada Mozetic (eds.) et al. Business and Human Rights Waldkirchen: rw&w Science and New Media Passau-Berlin-Prague. 2018. 268 pp. ISBN: 978-3-946915-21-8 Since the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles in 2011, 1 the topic of business and human rights has become subject to numerous academic studies as well as governments’ National Action Plans and business corporations’ codes of conduct. The issue remains increasingly acute and deserves special attention by more than only legal scholars. Companies play an essential role in economic development and the expectation that their activities are respectful of human rights, irrespective of where their operations take place and how effective the relevant local governments are in upholding even the basic human rights of their citizens, is now a business reality to which businesses need to respond. The present book grew out of a conference devoted to this vital topic of “Business and Human Rights” organized by the Research Centre at the Faculty of Law of the Charles University (UNCE) in Prague in 2017. It represents a valuable contribution to the debate and offers examinations of the business and human rights field from the perspective of diverse authors with different backgrounds, knowledge, and focus. The book under review provides interesting insights by professors and researchers from the Czech Republic and Brazil who embrace the topic from a number of angles, including international legal framework, EU rules, constitutional and comparative law, public and private law aspects, and the perspectives of international and national adjudicators. The multi-author and multi-discipline approach bring the reader an overall picture of various aspects of human rights in business activities and the recent challenges of how to effectively integrate human rights concerns into global economy. The editors (Prof. Šturma and Prof. Mozetic) adeptly organize and arrange in a systemic approach the individual essays on the practical implementation of specific issues. For the sake of coherence of the text the editors intentionally leave out from their focus matters of lex ferenda on international legal personality of transnational corporations, which would be difficult to apply in practice, and the preliminary drafts of the UN treaty on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights 2 (even though a brief introduction of the Zero Draft is given on pages 22 to 24). These two issues pose plenty of challenging questions and are far from a consensus at the theoretical level. 1 UNGuiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework, as annexed to the report of the Special Representative (A/HRC/17/31). See Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other businesses, John Ruggie. Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Business/A-HRC-17-31_ AEV.pdf [visited on 1 August 2019]. The Principles were endorsed by the UN’s Human Rights Council on 6 July 2011. See Resolution A/HRC/RES/17/4 of 6 July 2011. Available at: [visited on 1 August 2019]. 2 The “Zero Draft” of the treaty with a rather cumbersome name “Legally Binding Instrument to Regulate, in International Human Rights Law, the Activities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises” was released on 16 July 2018.

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