On April 24, 2018, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that foreign corporations cannot be sued in the United States under the Alien Tort Statute.
The Hong Kong legislature is currently considering draft legislation which, if enacted, will require certain companies—including those incorporated outside of Hong Kong—to publish a “slavery and human trafficking statement.”
The Canadian Government recently announced two new initiatives to “strengthen Canada’s approach to responsible business conduct for Canadian companies doing business and operating abroad.”
The Australian Government has announced plans to release draft legislation proposing the introduction of a “modern slavery in supply chains” reporting requirement.
An ongoing debate exists regarding the nature and extent to which transnational companies should be held directly and legally liable for human rights impacts.
In February 2017, legislatures in the Netherlands and France took significant steps to implement mandatory due diligence and reporting rules regarding the impact of an employer's operations and supply chains on human rights.
Courts in California and Canada have emerged as testing grounds for advancing claims of forced labor in global supply chains. The plaintiffs’ approach is to make companies more accountable to “soft law” norms like the UN Guiding Principles.
On November 29, 2016, France’s National Assembly adopted the text of a bill that, if enacted, would create new due diligence obligations for large French companies regarding their subsidiaries’ and supply chain members’ labor practices.
In March 2016, the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark published its “Pilot Methodology,” revealing plans for a publicly available, comparative, year-on-year “snapshot” of the human rights performance of the largest 500 companies.
