Who Made That?: Influencing Foreign Labour Practices Through Reflexive Domestic Disclosure Regulation
Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Vol. 43, p. 353, 2005
50 Pages Posted: 28 Feb 2006 Last revised: 22 Feb 2022
Abstract
An important tool of "decentred" regulation, including reflexive law, is corporate information disclosure. Disclosure regulation can have important normative influence on corporate behavior because it introduces a risk element that must be managed by corporate leaders. The challenge for regulators is to identity the scope of disclosure that will cause corporate responses of the sort desired by the state. This paper considers the potential role of disclosure regulation as a tool for influencing labour practices beyond the borders of the regulating state and, in particular, within the vast global supply chains of multinational corporations. In the context of improving labour practices in developing states, the goal of the regulation must be foremost the empowerment of the workers and their organizations in those states and the indigenous and emerging global social movements who assist them. The author examines three proposals for mandatory information disclosure of information about global labour practices, and examines the extent to which they potentially contribute to this goal. He argues that requiring companies to disclose their factory addresses is a feasible regulatory option for governments of advanced economic states that can have important normative effects on the management of supply chain labour practices while empowering local workers and civil society groups to pressure for change at the workplace level.
Keywords: labour, labour practices, information disclosure, transparency, globalization, transnational advocacy, corporate social responsibility, supply chain, risk, labor, work
JEL Classification: J38, J50, J51, J58, K20, K31, M14, P33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation