Faith Stevelman

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This article references the excellent article of Larry Cata Backer, as it provides an analysis of the 2008 Report's "Protect, Respect, Remedy" (PRR) framework. Ruggie's most recent efforts, reflected in the 2010 Report, are directed at operationalizing the PRR framework set forth in the 2008 Report. Both these reports have been vetted internationally amongst governments, lawyers, academics and human rights advocates. How will governments, corporations, trade associations and rights advocates conceptualize and construct the fora and modes of recourse available to persons aggrieving human rights abuses? That question is the central focus of the 2010 Report and, as such, lies beyond the current charge here. The article was not intended to be comprehensive. First it provides a brief restatement of the 2008 Report, and then in Part III comments upon Backer's discussion and analysis of it. In Part IV the article presents some additional questions and themes presented by the 2008 PRR framework. In Part V, the article describes and analyzes the relationship between business and human rights questions and recent developments in American corporate law. Part VI addresses how the agenda of business and human rights relates to certain recent developments in federal securities law. The conclusion contemplates the curious relationship between legal change and social change. Professor Backer is certainly correct that the PRR framework will be influential in the evolving relationship of business and human rights. The rest remains to be resolved through a complicated conversation, between business leaders, human rights advocates and lawyers and politicians, for years to come.

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