LeBaron, G orcid.org/0000-0003-0083-6126 and Rühmkorf, A. (2019) The domestic politics of corporate accountability legislation: struggles over the 2015 UK Modern Slavery Act. Socio-Economic Review, 17 (3). pp. 709-743. ISSN 1475-1461
Abstract
Over the last decade, the norm of corporate accountability for labour standards in global supply chains has become increasingly prominent within the transnational governance arena. As global governance initiatives to spur due diligence for labour standards and combat exploitation in global supply chains— especially its most severe forms frequently described as modern slavery— have proliferated, societal coalitions have pressured states to pass domestic legislation to the same effect. In this paper, we examine the regulatory processes that spurred the passage of one piece of anti-slavery legislation, the United Kingdom’s 2015 Modern Slavery Act. Our findings corroborate a number of established expectations regarding business opposition towards new legislation to raise public labour standards, but also provide a clearer picture of the mechanisms through which industry actors impact policymaking processes. Paradoxically, such mechanisms include business actors’ championing of weak regulatory initiatives, CSR activity, and partnering with civil society organizations. Understanding industry actors’ use of these strategies improves our understanding of how transnational norms of corporate accountability and anti-slavery are being contested and shaped at domestic scales.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 The Author. Published by Oxford University Press and the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com |
Keywords: | Governance; corporate social responsibility; government; social movements; firms; law |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 20 Oct 2017 11:59 |
Last Modified: | 21 Dec 2023 11:07 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/ser/mwx047 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:122653 |