Sarfaty: Shining Light on Global Supply Chains

Galit A. Sarfaty (Univ. of British Columbia – Law) has posted Shining Light on Global Supply Chains (Harvard International Law Journal, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This Article analyzes the effectiveness of emerging domestic legislation on global supply chain transparency with respect to human rights and labor practices. It draws from a quantitative and qualitative study of the implementation of recent U.S. conflict minerals legislation, section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act. I argue that the use of domestic law to regulate global supply chains has significant potential to shape corporate behavior, as defined by the extent of due diligence measures that companies have reported in their disclosures. But the existing compliance gap among companies suggests that the shift to domestic governance is not going far enough, raising significant accountability concerns. Given the challenges associated with extraterritorially regulating complex, multi-tiered supply chains, the state needs to play a larger role in implementation to facilitate corporate compliance. In addition, companies need to invest in their internal culture to facilitate organizational learning around responsible supply chain management.