HUMAN RIGHTS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TRADE AND
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
LAWJ XXXX/LAW G XXXX
SPRING 2017
TUESDAYS, 5:45 PM – 7:45 PM
CLASSROOM TO BE ASSIGNED
Instructors’ Contact Information
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Sarah Altschuller, saltschuller@foleyhoag.com (202) 607-3450
Eric Biel, biel.eric.r@dol.gov (202) 693-4881
Meg Roggensack, mer79@law.georgetown.edu (202) 494-9889
Professors will be available to students each week at specifically scheduled times in order
to discuss project progress. Meetings may also be scheduled before and after regularly
scheduled classes, as needed.
Course Description
Corporations today have a global scale and impact that matches or sometimes dwarfs that
of governments. Their activities - from sourcing of raw materials to processing and
production of intermediate or finished goods, to distribution and sale - have major
consequences not just for the human rights of their employees but also for those of
individuals and communities where they operate.
In many of these countries, government oversight and regulation is absent or largely
ineffective. Companies struggle to define their responsibilities in the wake of these
governance gaps, in particular where local law requires less of them than does
international law, e.g., on wages, hours or basic safety.
A robust and often contentious debate over these questions culminated in the
development of the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (“UNGPs”
or “Guiding Principles”). The UNGPs, finalized in 2011, establish a framework for
considering the respective roles of governments and corporations and outline core
concepts of human rights due diligence and effective remedy. In doing so, the UNGPs
also now inform and to some extent have refocused ongoing voluntary efforts that have
emerged over the past 20 years to fill these governance gaps among stakeholders from
business, civil society, the investment community, and academia.
These developments have taken place against the backdrop of an explosion in global
trade and dramatic changes in the rules governing the international trading and
investment framework. The establishment of the World Trade Organization and the
proliferation of bilateral and regional trade agreements led to increased scrutiny of the
relationship between trade and human rights and, ultimately, some acknowledgement and
integration of labor standards at the regional/bilateral level.
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This course introduces students to the business and human rights discussion and debate,
covering core international human rights/worker rights issues, labor and trade concepts,
and emerging voluntary and international norms, as well as reviewing the key
stakeholders, guidance, and tools, and examining how these play out in the context of
sector-specific initiatives.
Among the key questions the course explores are:
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What are the relevant human rights standards that affect business?
What are the appropriate linkages – including the legal relationships – between trade,
corporate policies/business practices, and the promotion of human rights?
What approaches are emerging as norms and “best practices”?
Who are the principal stakeholders, what are their roles and motivations, and what
have been their principal points of contention as well as opportunities for working
together?
Is the growing attention to business and human rights issues largely a result of the
inability of either national governments or international governmental organizations
to address human rights issues adequately?
What has been the mix of mandatory/regulatory and voluntary/“self-regulatory”
approaches utilized to address the links between human rights and both trade and
business practices – and is this the right mix?
Put another way, what is the proper relationship between “corporate responsibility”
through voluntary means and “corporate accountability” through laws and
regulations?
The course will begin with several sessions designed to provide the foundations of
relevant legal and policy developments, with special attention to the UNGPs. It will also
include an examination of concepts of corporate responsibility and corporate
accountability, and the relationship between the rules governing trade and international
labor standards.
Throughout the course, students will be asked to examine the various approaches and
differing roles of key stakeholders, including by playing the roles of those addressing the
key issues from the perspectives of corporations, NGOs/civil society, and governments.
The class will be divided into three groups for purposes of this “role playing” – with each
section asked to adopt the three different set of perspectives during the course of the
semester, both in students’ individual analysis of assigned readings and in group sessions
during some of the classes.
Requirements and Grading
Prerequisites: There are no formal course requirements, but some basic familiarity with
international trade and human rights law is assumed.
Students may not receive credit for both this seminar and the practicum course offered in
Fall 2016 by Professor Milton Regan.
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Readings: All assigned readings are available in a course packet. These also include some
recommended readings not required for course preparation, but which may be useful in
preparing for class discussions and in preparation of the paper requirement.
Class Participation: Students are expected to participate actively in class discussions,
including during the team “role-playing exercises” described below (which will not
require any advance preparation aside from completing the assigned week’s readings). In
addition, each student is expected to post brief comments on the course site each week,
based on that week’s readings, sharing his or her point of view and help contribute to
class discussion. Taken together, these will account for 40% of the final grade.
Paper Requirements: Each student enrolled in the seminar for two credits will evaluate
specific business and human rights policy challenges through two writing assignments:
(1) A 4 - 6 page paper on a topic assigned Week 6 and due at the beginning of class
Week 8 – following the mid-term break; and
(2) A 6 – 8 page paper on a different topic assigned Week 12, discussed in class
during the final Week 13 session, and due to the Office of the Registrar no later
than the regular Law Center paper deadline.
The two assignments together will account for 60% of the final grade – 20% for the first
one, 40% for the second, longer one.
Upperclass Writing Requirement: Up to three students may elect to enroll in this class for
three credits to satisfy the Upperclass Legal Writing Requirement, as detailed below.
These students will not be required to meet the paper requirements outlined above.
Upperclass Legal Writing Requirement
Students enrolled in this course and electing to satisfy the Upperclass Legal Writing
Requirement must submit a research paper between 6,000 and 8,000 words (not including
footnotes). Students will be provided with a list of suggested topics or may select their
own topic, subject to professor approval. Each student should aim to produce a
publishable-quality research paper.
Please note the following mandatory criteria for satisfying the Upperclass Legal Writing
Requirement, which are set out at page 5 of the Student Handbook:
1. use of legal forms of citation (i.e., your paper cites appropriate legal sources and
uses BlueBook citation format)
2. submission of an outline and a first draft of at least 6,000 words (excluding
footnotes), in accordance with the professors’ instructions and schedule
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3. submission of a revised final paper of at least 6,000 words (excluding footnotes)
based on the professors’ comments
To complete the writing requirement, students must submit an abstract and outline, first
draft, and final paper according to the following schedule:
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Abstract and Outline due by Class Four (by email to the professors)
First draft due by Class Eight (by email to the professors)
Final paper due by Class Thirteen (must be submitted to the Registrar)
To support the students’ completion of the writing requirement, the professors will
review and provide email feedback on the required submissions, and will arrange at least
one face-to-face meeting. (We anticipate that each professor will take the lead in
supervising one student preparing this paper – in consultation with his/her teaching
colleagues.)
As noted in the Student Handbook, “[f]inal papers must be submitted to the Office of the
Registrar, and a copy of the paper must also be submitted to the professor if requested, by
the deadline announced by the professor. Final papers must be submitted through the
Georgetown Law Online Paper/Exam Management System, at
http://apps.law.georgetown.edu/exams.” (See Student Handbook at p. 18.)
For papers submitted after the deadline without extension approved by the professor,
[t]he professor will determine what penalty, if any, applies to papers submitted
after the deadline. Students who submit a final paper after the maximum
professor-approved extension deadline will receive an AF for the seminar unless
approval for a further extension is obtained from the Associate Dean….An AF is
reflected on the student’s transcript and factored into the student’s grade point
average as an earned F. (Id. at p. 19.)
Abstract. The outline, the draft paper, and the final paper should each include an abstract
(approximately 150-300 words) that summarizes the issue and conclusion(s). The
abstract should appear on a separate cover page, with the student name and paper title.
The abstract does not count toward the overall word count for the paper. Sample
abstracts are provided on the TWEN course website.
Papers. Papers (both the first draft and final paper) should be double-spaced with oneinch margins. Citations should appear in footnotes and conform to The BlueBook
citation method. Please note that the minimum requirement of 6,000 words does not
include the abstract or footnotes. Each student should indicate the final word count at the
conclusion of both the first draft and the final paper.
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Grading. Student papers will be graded based on the following four factors:
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Key arguments: identifies key arguments and addresses counterarguments
Legal research and reading material: incorporates relevant content from
independent legal research and reading materials
Structure, advocacy, and citation: uses coherent structure, sign-posting,
topic sentences, and an overall cohesive writing style; uses strong
advocacy skills to support position; uses correct citations and citation
format
Grammar, spelling, and punctuation
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