Workshop: Corporate Liability for Human Rights Abuses in Global Value Chains

Since the mid-twentieth century, corporate liability for human rights abuses has been a central theme in international legal scholarship. Companies may contribute to such abuses in various ways, including through third parties operating within their global value chain relationships. Against this backdrop, supply chain litigation has become the primary mechanism for holding lead companies accountable, amid extensive fragmentation, economic interdependence coupled with legal independence among actors, and limited regulatory oversight.

This workshop examines how courts across different jurisdictions, including those in the Global South, delineate the boundaries of corporate liability in global value chains. It offers an analytical account of how such cases are framed before courts, the legal reasoning that supports both liability and non- liability findings, and the factors that shape case outcomes, drawing on comparative insights and empirical evidence from Giovana Agutoli’s doctoral research.

Speaker: Giovana Agutoli | PhD Candidate, FGV Law School (Brazil). Visiting Researcher, King’s College London. Business & Human Rights Coordinator, UN Global Compact Network Brazil.