Modern Slavery and Directors’ Disqualification: A Convergence of Opportunity and Challenge

Blanca Mamutse

Industrial Law Journal, 2022, vol. 51, issue 4, 855-903

Abstract: Prevention and elimination of modern slavery is a priority of this era, eliciting responses at an international level and in domestic laws. The duty of organisations to ensure transparency in their supply chains is the strongest representation of corporate responsibility in this field. Less attention has been given to the current/potential role of insolvency mechanisms, in relation to companies’ commission of modern slavery offences, and in relation to their failure to comply with their supply-chain obligations. This paper engages with this novel question by examining the proposition to incorporate a directors’ disqualification sanction into the United Kingdom framework governing companies’ modern slavery supply chain obligations. This represents an opportunity, insofar as the disqualification regime is ostensibly well-placed to address weaknesses in companies’ compliance with their responsibilities. However, it represents a challenge in that adoption and implementation would have to navigate drawbacks such as the limitations of existing grounds for disqualification and potential weaknesses in the design and enforcement of a bespoke sanction. Moreover, it should confront uncertainty as to whether disqualification is an effective tool for preventing misconduct by the professional/executive class of managers at the helm of large companies. Increased emphasis on regulating the human rights obligations of companies makes it imperative that this question is addressed.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/indlaw/dwab034 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:indlaw:v:51:y:2022:i:4:p:855-903.

Access Statistics for this article

Industrial Law Journal is currently edited by Professor Simon Deakin

More articles in Industrial Law Journal from Industrial Law Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().