Jurisdiction, Human Rights and Global Supply Chains

Rui Dias

Chapter 10 in Private International Law and Global Crises, 2026, pp 227-249 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: In June 2024, the European legislator adopted the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD); that framework was subsequently substantially amended by Directive (EU) 2026/470 of 24 February 2026, adopted under the EU's Omnibus I simplification package, which, inter alia, significantly narrowed the Directive's personal scope and removed the uniform EU civil liability regime and the requirement of overriding mandatory application previously provided for in Article 29(1) and (7). Once implemented by the Member States, EU-domiciled companies and non-EU companies with significant turnover in the EU must conduct human rights and environmental due diligence across their operations, through subsidiaries and business partners worldwide. These wide-reaching substantive rules, however, are not accompanied by special jurisdictional provisions. This chapter, therefore, critically assesses the jurisdictional rules currently in force and discusses what amendments are necessary to fairly deal with both EU- and non-EU-domiciled companies covered by the CSDDD. The analysis starts with a discussion of core notions of the Directive, namely ‘human rights’, and ‘extraterritoriality’. It then highlights the inconsistency that, although non-European companies are subject to the Directive, no jurisdictional rules guarantee their amenability to suit before EU courts, even though their activities are covered. To address this shortcoming, three solutions are examined: first, a forum legis approach (or one based on the idea of an effet utile of the new substantive regulation); second, the introduction of a forum of necessity; and third, the preferred ‘small steps’ strategy of amending the Brussels Ia Regulation, by extending Article 8(1) to non-EU companies and adapting Article 7(5) to include the place of the competent supervisory authority under Article 24(3) CSDDD where no EU establishment exists but an authorised representative has been mandated under Article 3(1)(k).

Keywords: Corporate sustainability due diligence; Human rights claims; Extraterritoriality; Jurisdiction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035360192
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