HOLDING COMPANIES RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR SUPPLY CHAIN: THE PATH OF AN IDEA THROUGH ACTIVIST JUSTIFICATION, MANAGERIAL INSTRUMENTATION, AND LEGAL PRODUCTION

Abstract

Based on a research program devoted to the construction of the responsibility of multinational companies for the damage caused in their supply chain, this article outlines a four-stage process: the 1990s and anti-sweatshop activism; the 2000s and the proliferation of CSR tools; the 2010s and the legalization of the duty of vigilance; and finally the 2020s and the first jurisprudence. In doing so, the article invites us to go beyond an agonistic vision of the relationships between companies and activist movements, by highlighting the entanglements between these two worlds. It also invites us to go beyond a segmented vision of soft law and hard law, while underlining the porosity between these two types of instruments.