A recent national survey conducted by the China National Textile and Apparel Council provides the first systematic assessment of how Chinese supply chain enterprises—predominantly small- and medium-sized manufacturers in the textiles and apparel industry—are perceiving and responding to the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and related mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation. This piece analyses the survey’s key findings and discusses what they reveal about the practical reach and limits of extraterritorial due diligence governance in global manufacturing supply chains.

Plastic pollution is a diffuse, cumulative and value chain-generated environmental problem that remains insufficiently addressed by existing product, waste and market regulations. This article examines the potential of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) to function as a horizontal governance mechanism capable of embedding plastics-related risk management within corporate decision-making. Using a doctrinal and governance-oriented analytical framework, the article assesses whether plastic pollution qualifies as an “adverse environmental impact” under the Directive, how its risk-based obligations may apply across upstream and downstream stages of plastics value chains, and how its enforcement architecture shapes corporate accountability. The analysis demonstrates that, although the CSDDD does not directly regulate plastics, it can procedurally operationalise existing EU plastics and circular economy objectives by integrating environmental risk management into corporate governance systems. At the same time, its effectiveness is constrained by structural limitations, including the exclusion of post-consumer stages, challenges of causation in diffuse pollution contexts and variations in enforcement across Member States. The article contributes a systems-oriented assessment of regulatory coherence at the intersection of plastics governance and corporate due diligence, while critically evaluating the limits of procedural regulatory approaches in addressing systemic environmental harm.

With the Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence, the European Union strives to address the negative externalities of companies that arise in the global economy. The new Directive follows the example of national lawmakers by requiring large companies operating in their own jurisdiction to manage adverse impacts on human rights and the environment. These due diligence laws affect companies beyond European borders by cascading due diligence standards down transnational ownership ties and value chains. They are shifting gears in the complex engine of the global economy and have considerable impacts on stakeholders in third countries. These extraterritorial implications raise the question of what limits international law places on relevant unilateral legislation. This article assesses the Directive against the law of jurisdiction and international comity arguing that unilateral due diligence laws are an appropriate way to address transnational sustainability challenges, provided lawmakers take adequate precautions.

The need to urgently shift away from fossil-based systems of energy for the sake of the planet and its people is clear. The green transition comes, however, with negative impacts on human rights and the environment, notably on the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Global South, where most of the essential minerals and metals needed for the transition are found. In this piece, we discuss recent legal developments in the Netherlands from the perspective of the need for a just energy transition. Against the background of the recently adopted European Union (EU) Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), we analyze two draft Dutch due diligence laws and their potential in the context of a just energy transition. The focus is on the rights of Indigenous Peoples who are in an extremely vulnerable position in the transition process.

After the endorsement of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) by the Human Rights Council on 16 June 2011, 15 March 2024 marked another milestone for transnational corporate governance. That day, a qualified majority of the member states of the European Union (EU) voted in favour of the Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDDD) setting human rights and environmental obligations for large companies in their global value chains.1 The CSDDD is the first region-wide due diligence legislation, yet it is also a political compromise among EU member states, which civil society and business have been watching closely. This piece explains the main elements of the CSDDD and outlines some of its implications beyond the EU.