scholarly journals Business Ethics and Human Rights: An Overview

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
George G BRENKERT
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Limited Space ◽  
General Terms

AbstractIn the last several decades a diverse movement has emerged that seeks to extend the accountability for human rights beyond governments and states, to businesses. Though the view that business has human rights responsibilities has attracted a great deal of positive attention, this view continues to face many reservations and unresolved questions.Business ethicists have responded in a twofold manner. First, they have tried to formulate the general terms or frameworks within which the discussion might best proceed. Second, they have sought to answer several questions that these different frameworks pose: A. What are human rights and how justify one’s defence of them?; B. Who is responsible for human rights? What justifies their extension to business?; and C. What are the general features of business’s human rights responsibilities? Are they mandatory or voluntary? How are the specific human rights responsibilities of business to be determined?Within the limited space of this article, this article seeks to critically examine where the discussion of these issues presently stands and what has been the contribution of business ethicists.

Towards Business Ethics as an Academic Discipline

1996 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georges Enderle
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
System Approach ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Business Practice ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
Practical Relevance ◽  
Teaching Business Ethics ◽  
Theoretical Understanding

AbstractRecalling several profound disagreements about business ethics as it is currently discussed in Western societies, I emphasize the need for business ethics as an academic discipline that constitutes the “backbone” for both teaching business ethics and improving business practice (section 1). Then I outline a conceptual framework of business ethics that promotes a “bottom-up” approach (section 2). This “problem-and action-oriented” conception appears to be fruitful in terms of both practical relevance and theoretical understanding. Finally, I argue for (section 3) the relevance of discussing goals at all levels of human action (i.e., individuals, organizations, systems) as well as the indispensability of human rights, and propose Amartya Sen's “goal-rights-system” approach as a normative-ethical framework for business ethics that integrates these two fundamental aspects.

scholarly journals The Emergence of a More Conventional Reading of the Conventionality Control Doctrine

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 275-302
Author(s):  
Álvaro Paúl
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
Member States ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Domestic Legislation ◽  
Do So

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights developed a doctrine called conventionality control. In general terms, this doctrine is somewhat similar to the idea of judicial review of legislation, but applied in a transnational forum. According to the Court, conventionality control would require domestic judges and other bodies of States parties to the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) to depart from domestic legislation that runs counter to the ACHR or the Inter-American Court’s interpretation of the ACHR. Many scholars contend that the application of this doctrine should be carried out even if the domestic bodies that apply it have no constitutional power to do so. Others have a more restrictive interpretation and consider that domestic bodies would have to apply it to the extent of their power, according to their national constitutions. Apparently, the latter interpretation is gaining a wider support, which is desirable, because only this reading would be compatible with the principles of international law, and possibly accepted by all member States.

Constitutionalism, Judicialisation and Human Rights in the Integration of European Society

2020 ◽  
pp. 118-139
Author(s):  
Paul Blokker
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
European Integration ◽  
European Society ◽  
Final Part ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Postwar Europe ◽  
Legal Regimes ◽  
Sociological View

This chapter discusses a renewed interest in a sociology of constitutions in recent years. This interest has emerged not least due to the significantly changing nature of constitutions and constitutionalism, not in the last place as a result of apparent constitutional qualities inherent in legal regimes beyond state borders. A historically and sociologically informed approach helps to study European integration as a legal and constitutional project, and highlights its fragility and tensions, increasingly visible in recent years. The chapter first introduces a sociological view of constitutions and constitutionalism in general terms, and then goes on to discuss the multi-faceted process of constitutionalisation and judicialization in postwar Europe from a sociological angle, with particular emphasis on the depoliticizing and at the same time contested nature of this process. The final part of the chapter reflects on contemporary issues related to the problematic dimensions of the constitutionalising and judicialising process, including a backlash against universal rights and supranational law in many European societies.

Human Rights and Business Ethics

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
David Birchall ◽  
Masoud Shadnam
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Business Ethics

Interpreting Human Rights Law

2018 ◽  
pp. 115-150
Author(s):  
Sandra Fredman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Judicial Interpretation ◽  
Living Tree ◽  
Original Intention ◽  
General Terms ◽  
The Face ◽  
Changing Times

On the face of it, judges are tasked with applying the law, not making it. Yet human rights are framed in general terms, requiring judges to draw on external values to interpret. Some regard judicial interpretation as gaining legitimacy only when true to the original intention of the drafters; or the text’s natural meaning. Others regard the human rights instruments as necessarily responsive to changing times. This is the ‘living tree’ or purposive approach. This chapter explores different approaches to interpretation of human rights in a comparative context. Section II examines judges’ own values. Section III discusses originalism or the intention of the drafters; section IV considers the natural meaning of the text; while section V examines the ‘living tree’ or purposive approach. Section VI explores the notion of transformative constitutionalism. The final part draws on the ‘bounded deliberative democracy’ developed in earlier chapters to point to the way forward.

Business Responsibilities for Human Rights: A Commentary on Arnold

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nien-hê HSIEH
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Moral Rights ◽  
The Other ◽  
Institutional Approach ◽  
Human Rights Practice ◽  
Key Questions

AbstractHuman rights have come to play a prominent role in debates about the responsibilities of business. In the business ethics literature, there are two approaches to the question of whether businesses have human rights obligations. The ‘moral’ approach conceives of human rights as antecedently existing basic moral rights. The ‘institutional’ approach starts with contemporary human rights practice in which human rights refer to rights enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent international documents, and in which states are the primary duty bearers of human rights. This commentary argues that the implications of adopting one or the other approach are much greater than most scholars recognize, and that we have reason to reject the moral approach and to adopt the institutional approach instead. The commentary highlights key questions that need to be addressed if human rights are to play a central role in framing the responsibilities of business.

scholarly journals PLURALISMO JURÍDICO COMO ALTERNATIVA EPISTEMOLÓGICA PARA A CULTURA DE DIREITOS HUMANOS DESDE O CONTEXTO LATINO-AMERICANO

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 653
Author(s):  
André Luiz Pereira Spinieli
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Current State ◽  
Constitutional Culture ◽  
The Face ◽  
America Latina

O debate sobre o pluralismo jurídico no contexto político e social latino-americano não é recente, de modo que suas percepções foram renovadas a partir do movimento neoconstitucionalista operado no continente, responsável por desencadear alternativas epistêmicas para se pensar a efetividade dos direitos humanos e dos direitos de cidadania, tudo a partir da lógica de emancipação social e descolonialidade, como possibilidade de rompimento com o constitucionalismo tradicional, de cunho conservador, hegemônico e colonialista. Em termos gerais, como uma das respostas à concepção juspositivista, o pluralismo jurídico surge como modelo de pensamento para a práxis dos direitos humanos, em face de uma sociedade na qual impera a lógica das exclusões concretas em contrariedade às inclusões abstratas. Dessa forma, tomando por base a abordagem bibliográfica, este trabalho propõe oferecer reflexões a respeito do atual estado da cultura de direitos humanos instalada na América Latina, com enfoque nas contribuições epistemológicas advindas da teoria críticados direitos humanos e do pluralismo jurídico wolkmeriano.Palavras-chave: Pluralismo jurídico. Direitos humanos. Cultura constitucional. América Latina. Teoria crítica dos direitos humanos.LEGAL PLURALISM AS AN EPISTEMOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVE FOR THE CULTURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS SINCE THE LATIN AMERICAN CONTEXTAbstractThe debate on legal pluralism in the Latin American political and social context is not recent, so that their perceptions were renewed from the neo-constitutionalist movement operated on the continent, responsible for triggering epistemic alternatives to think about the effectiveness of human rights and human rights of citizenship, all based on the logic of social emancipation and decoloniality, as a possibility of breaking with traditional constitutionalism, of a conservative, hegemonic and colonialist nature. In general terms, as one of the answers to the juspositivist conception, legal pluralism emerges as a model of thoughtfor the practice of human rights, in the face of a society in which the logic of concrete exclusions prevails in opposition to abstract inclusions. Thus, based on the bibliographic approach, this work proposes to offer reflections on the current state of human rights culture in Latin America, focusing on the epistemological contributions arising from the critical theory of human rights and legal Wolkmer’s pluralism.Keywords: Legal Pluralism. Human rights. Constitutional culture. Latin America. Critical theory of human rights.

scholarly journals Observance of Human Rights as an Element of Shaping the Position of the European Enterprise in the Knowledge-Based Economy

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-18
Author(s):  
Kinga Machowicz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Survival And Development ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Economic Well Being

The goal of the article is to determine the role played by observance of human rights in shaping the position of the European enterprise in the knowledge-based economy. It has been assumed that the condition most expected by an entrepreneur is to achieve a competitive advantage. The concept of observance of human rights in conducting business activities is connected with business ethics and the idea of corporate social responsibility, while economic well-being can be achieved in the conditions of a knowledge-based economy.  One of the conditions for the survival and development of the employer conducting business activities in the knowledge-based economy is to effectively motivate employees to reveal their knowledge and use it in practice. Non-financial motivation may involve the feeling of identification with the employer.

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