A team of legal experts* has concluded a new analysis of the “Complementarity of the Legally Binding Instrument on Business and Human Rights and the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.”
With the entry into force of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) in July 2024, many stakeholders involved in corporate accountability wondered how the adopted legislation could complement an Internationally Legally Binding Instrument on Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises regarding Human Rights (LBI). In 2022, a team of legal experts conducted a study aimed at analysing the competencies, comparisons, and complementarity of both instruments. At that time, the CSDDD was still a proposal that underwent changes reflected in the adopted file.
Following up on the initial study, a team of legal experts concluded a new analysis on the “Complementarity of the Legally Binding Instrument on Business and Human Rights and the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive”. This study considers the EU CSDDD as adopted in July 2024. The European Commission’s recent publication of an Omnibus Simplification Package introduces modifications to the CSDDD that could influence its complementarity with the LBI. Similarly, it might affect the EU’s decision to adopt a negotiating mandate to engage with the open-ended intergovernmental working group (OEIGWG) on business and human rights. Notwithstanding, this recent study retains its significance as it illustrates how the CSDDD, in its enacted form, can support the LBI process, leading to an improved draft.
The study assesses the complementarity of the LBI and the CSDDD while analysing how the two processes can mutually reinforce each other. After an introduction (Section 1), the document is structured as follows:
- Section 2 analyses the scope of the two legal instruments by discussing personal scope, material scope regarding human rights and environmental issues, and corporate obligations.
- Section 3 addresses the various corporate obligations, including general due diligence duties and specific obligations related to combating climate change beyond due diligence.
- Section 4 evaluates issues concerning access to justice, including liability, private international law questions, access to evidence, and other matters.
*This new study was written by Kinda Mohamadieh, from Third World Network, Otgontuya Davaanyam, Stephanie Regalia and Markus Krajewski from the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg respectively.
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