Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22598/iele.2022.9.2.1
LARGE COMPANIES SAVING PEOPLE AND THE PLANET – REFLECTIONS ON THE PERSONAL SCOPE OF THE APPLICATION OF THE CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY DUE DILIGENCE DIRECTIVE
Dionis Jurić
; University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law, Rijeka, Croatia
Antonija Zubović
; University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law, Rijeka, Croatia
Edita Čulinović-Herc
orcid.org/0000-0002-6177-8057
; University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
On 23 February 2022, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence (hereinafter: CSDD). It aims to foster sustainable and responsible corporate behavior throughout global value chains. Companies will be required to identify and, where necessary, prevent, end, or mitigate adverse impacts of their activities on human rights (e.g., child labor, exploitation of workers) and on the environment (e.g. pollution and biodiversity loss). The CSDD would apply both to the EU and non-EU companies reaching certain thresholds in terms of the number of employees and amount of net turnover, with minor exemptions when the non-EU companies are concerned. Lower thresholds apply if the EU companies are doing business in the high-risk sectors, while the higher apply if the companies are operating in the non-high-risk sector. To comply with new due diligence rules, companies would be required to check whether their operations are aligned with human rights and environmental law conventions listed in the Annex of the CSDD, as well as the operation of its subsidiaries and all suppliers upstream and downstream in the value chain – with whom they have “established business relationship”. Given the fact that the new set of duties is comprehensive and their non-compliance triggers the company’s liability, the paper aims to compare these boundaries of the personal scope of the CSDD with criteria prescribed in similar national laws of the member states as well as to question defensive tactics of the
target companies.
Keywords
corporate sustainability; global value chains, supply chains; human rights; environmental law; due diligence; the personal scope of the application; corporate sustainability due diligence directive; defensive tactics
Hrčak ID:
293333
URI
Publication date:
31.1.2023.
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