Synopses & Reviews
In a time when multinational corporations have become truly globalised, demands for global standards on their behaviour are increasingly difficult to dismiss. Work conditions in sweatshops, widespread destruction of the environment, and pharmaceutical trials in third world countries are only the tip of the iceberg. This timely collection of essays addresses the interface between the calls for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the demands for an extension of international human rights standards. Scholars from a vast variety of backgrounds provide expert yet accessible accounts of questions of law, politics, economics and international relations and how they relate to one another, while also encouraging non-legal perspectives on how businesses operate within and around human rights. The result is an essential incursion for a wide range of scholars, practitioners and students in law, development, business studies and international studies, in this emerging area of human rights.
Review
"This book provides a very good selection of the range of issues of corporate responsibility in the area of human rights. The authors offer insightful engagement with a variety of issues based on application to relevant examples in practice and from different perspectives. It is a most interesting introduction to some of these important and difficult matters that affect the world." - Professor Robert McCorquodale, Professor of International Law and Human Rights, University of Nottingham and Director of British Institute of International and Comparative Law
Synopsis
The Business of Human Rights is an essential text that provides a human rights framework to facilitate a critical approach to corporate responsibilities, and the place of these responsibilities within society across the globe. It provides for the reader a unique introduction to many questions of law, politics, economics, and international relations and how they relate to one another, while also encouraging non-legal perspectives on business organizations.
About the Author
Aurora Voiculescu is an academic in the Centre for Law at Open University Business School and an Associate Research Fellow at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University. Helen Yanacopulos is Senior Lecturer in International Politics and Development at the Open University.
Table of Contents
1. Human rights in business contexts: an overview - Aurora Voiculescu and Helen Yanacopulos
2. Human rights and the normative ordering of global capitalism - Aurora Voiculescu
3. Brands, corporate social responsibility and reputation management - Fiona Harris
4. Transforming labour standards to labour rights - Piya Pangsapa and Mark J. Smith
5. Violent corporate crime, corporate social responsibility and human rights - Gary Slapper
6. Access to medicines: intellectual property rights, human rights and justice - Keren Bright and Lois Muragur
7. Foundations - actors of change? - Helen Yanacopulos
8. Combating transnational corporate corruption: enhancing human rights and good governance - John Hatchard
9. Business in zones of conflict: an emergent corporate security responsibility? - Nicole Dietelhoff and Klaus Deiter Wolf
10. Human rights, ethics and international business: the case of Nigeria - Olufemi Amao
11. Clusters of injustice: human rights, environmental sustainability and labour standards - Mark J. Smith and Piya Pangsapa