Legislative Attempts at Business and Human Rights Governance Guided by Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence: An Analysis Based on France's Duty of Vigilance Law

强制性人权尽责为导向的工商业人权治理立法探索——基于法国《警惕义务法》的分析

The discourse on business and human rights (BHR) is a direct manifestation of international human rights issues within the business sector. Born during the rapid advancement of economic globalization at the end of the last century, it primarily focuses on the impacts of business production, investment, and other activities on the human rights of various stakeholders, as well as how to assess, regulate, and protect them. In different historical periods, the field of BHR has also seen other influential discourses such as CSR and ESG. These frameworks emphasize that enterprises should bear responsibilities towards consumers, the environment, etc., in their operations, and stress the value of people, but they do not categorize such responsibilities within the scope of human rights protection. The promulgation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as the “Guiding Principles”) formally established the basic principles of international society concerning BHR protection. Business enterprises cultivate responsible business conduct, integrating human rights culture into their management processes, making it a pursuit of value. However, as an international soft law norm, it primarily relies on the voluntary compliance of governments and businesses and lacks mandatory binding force. In practice, a significant number of enterprises still do not comply with these principles, leading to a huge gap between the aspirational vision of BHR governance and reality. Subsequently, to deeply promote the protection of stakeholders' human rights interests by businesses, developed countries in Europe and America began legislative attempts in this area, seeking to find a way to incorporate BHR protection into domestic judicial systems. In this regard, France's Duty of Vigilance Law is one of the most influential pioneering attempts. The Duty of Vigilance Law selected mandatory human rights due diligence as its legislative path, attempting to compel eligible enterprises to regularly conduct human rights due diligence. Through broad oversight channels such as administrative agencies, judicial organs, and NGOs, it supervises enterprises in fulfilling their human rights protection obligations and also brings damages resulting from the failure to perform human rights due diligence within the jurisdiction of French domestic courts. This paper aims to analyze the Duty of Vigilance Law, identifying the controversies that have arisen during its operation, with the objective of providing constructive references for future BHR legislation in China.

工商业与人权话语是国际人权议题在工商业领域内的直接表现，其诞生于上世纪末经济全球化急速推进的特殊时期，主要关注的是工商业的生产、投资等活动对于各利益相关者的人权权益所产生的影响，以及如何评估、规制及保护。在不同的历史时期，该领域曾经也出现过诸如CSR、ESG 等具有较大影响的其他话语，这些话语体系强调企业在经营过程中应该承担对于消费者、环境等所产生的责任，强调关注人的价值，但是并未将此类责任归入到人权保护的范畴之内。《联合国工商业与人权指导原则》的颁布，正式确立了国际社会关于工商业人权保护的基本原则，工商企业通过培育负责任的商业行为，将人权文化融入其经营管理过程中，使之成为价值追求。而指导原则作为一项国际软法规范，主要依靠的是各国政府及工商企业的主动遵守没有强制拘束力，在实践中依旧有相当数量的企业并未遵守该原则，工商业人权治理的美好愿景与现实存在巨大落差。为了深入推进工商业对于利益相关者人权利益的保护，欧美发达国家开始在这一领域内进行立法尝试，试图探索出将工商业人权保护纳入国内司法体系管辖的出路，法国《警惕义务法》是其中影响力最大的一次先锋尝试。《警惕义务法》选取了强制性人权尽责作为立法径路，试图通过强制合资格的企业定期开展人权尽责，通过行政机关、司法机关、NGO 等广泛的监督渠道，监督企业履行人权保护义务，还将因未履行人权尽责所导致的损害纳入法国国内法院的诉讼管辖范围内。本文拟通过对《警惕义务法》的分析，提出该法在运作过程中出现的争议，旨在为我国今后的工商业人权立法提供建设性参考。