Expert Analysis

• Human Rights Are Becoming A Compliance Issue

  

  A recent commitment from the European Union's commissioner for justice to introduce rules for mandatory corporate human rights due diligence next year may signal the arrival of this issue as a global business imperative, making it as fundamental as anti-corruption diligence, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

• 5 Steps For Keeping Supply Chains Free Of Uighur Slavery

  

  In light of a March report identifying 83 global brands suspected of supply chain links to forced labor of Uighurs — an ethnic minority long targeted by the Chinese government — companies should adopt certain procedures to identify red flags in their own supply chains, say Benjamin Britz and Rayhan Asat at Hughes Hubbard.

• Perspectives

  Addressing Modern Slavery Inside And Outside The UK

  

  As the problem of modern slavery persists, U.K. companies must take a broad approach when rooting out slave labor in their supply chains, and should not ignore the risk posed by suppliers within the U.K., says Maria Theodoulou of Stokoe.

• UK Antitrust Watchdog Proposals Would Bolster Enforcement

  

  The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority's proposals for reshaping competition enforcement and consumer protection would shift the historical balance in U.K. competition policy, increasing regulatory burden on companies while weakening judicial scrutiny of CMA actions, says Bill Batchelor of Skadden.

• UK's New 'Name And Shame' Approach To Anti-Trafficking

  

  There has been considerable anxiety and speculation from companies over the annual transparency statement required by the U.K. Modern Slavery Act, but a recent tender announcement from the U.K. Home Office provides key insights into what to expect, say attorneys with Perkins Coie.

• A Victory For Legal Privilege In Cross-Border Investigations

  

  The U.K. Court of Appeal's recent decision in Serious Fraud Office v. Eurasian Natural Resources is a substantial step toward confirming the application of legal privilege in internal investigations, and has significantly reduced the divergence in U.K. and U.S. privilege law, say attorneys with Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP.

• Is It Time To Prosecute UK Cos. For Human Rights Violations?

  

  The idea of holding companies criminally liable for human rights abuses committed overseas has gained traction over the past decade. Though the U.K. government has made it clear that it has no immediate plans for further legislation in this area, calls for corporate criminal liability are only likely to get louder, say Andrew Smith and Alice Lepeuple of Corker Binning.

• UK Employment Law Risks In Cross-Border M&A

  

  U.K. employment law has developed in myriad ways and continues to do so. The acquisition of U.K.-based companies or assets will therefore often give rise to employment law considerations that are unfamiliar to U.S. buyers, says Richard Moore of Lewis Silkin LLP.

• 4 Questions About Whistleblowing In The UK And Beyond

  

  Following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's announcement of its biggest-ever Dodd-Frank whistleblower awards, Chris Warren-Smith of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP discusses whistleblowing in financial service industries in different jurisdictions with other Morgan Lewis attorneys based all around the world.

• Revamping Contracts For GDPR: 3 Ways To Prepare

  

  The EU's General Data Protection Regulation requirements — which take effect May 25 — create a substantial hurdle for thousands of companies worldwide and affect millions of vendor contracts, which now need to be reviewed, amended and potentially renegotiated, say Mathew Keshav Lewis and Zachary Foreman of Axiom Law.

• Keys To Corporate Social Responsibility Compliance: Part 1

  

  2018 may be the year that corporate social responsibility compliance becomes a core duty of in-house legal departments. Not only have legal requirements proliferated in recent years, but new disclosure requirements and more regulation are on the horizon, say attorneys with Ropes & Gray LLP.

• A Guide To Anti-Trafficking Compliance For Food Cos.

  

  Despite the 2016 dismissal of federal human rights cases against food companies in California, a similar class action — Tomasella v. Hershey Co. — was recently filed in Massachusetts federal court, and it’s one that companies in the sector should watch closely, says Markus Funk of Perkins Coie LLP.

• Human Rights Benchmarks: A Primer For In-House Counsel

  

  A number of corporate institutions and nongovernmental organizations have partnered together to “benchmark” how peer companies compare to each other in the area of human rights compliance. The reputational damage that these studies can cause should not be underestimated, say Viren Mascarenhas and Kayla Winarsky Green of King & Spalding LLP.

• Basic Human Rights: Whose Job Is Enforcement?

  

  The cases of Jesner v. Arab Bank and Doe v. Cisco Systems pose different legal tests under the Alien Tort Statute. But these decisions could hold major consequences for environmentalists, human rights activists and even individuals who have turned to ATS to go after transnational corporations, says Dan Weissman of LexisNexis.

• Cos. Should Note Guidance From Gov'ts On Human Rights

  

  Recent legislative and courtroom developments in the U.K., the U.S. and further afield may have a significant impact on human rights compliance requirements for companies doing business internationally, say attorneys with Covington & Burlington LLP.