Law Commons^™

The Consumer Imaginary: Labor Rights, Human Rights, And Citizen-Consumers In The Global Supply Chain, Kevin Kolben

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Consumers are increasingly demanding that the goods and services they consume be produced in a way that meets their social expectations. By extension, they are exhibiting greater willingness to pay more at the cash register for products made in good working conditions, and they are willing to punish companies that do not satisfy these expectations. Driving these "citizen-consumers" is what this Article terms the "consumer imaginary," which is defined as the narratives that consumers tell themselves about the people that make their things--people whom consumers will likely never meet, and whose lived experiences are distant from their own. Policymakers have …

Multinational Enterprises And Workplace Reproductive Health: Extending Corporate Social Responsibility, Rebecca K. Atkins

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Corporate social responsibility is a relatively new approach to the protection of human rights. While the human rights to whole-body health and workplace health are long-standing, the right to reproductive health is a new topic of discussion. This Note examines the right to reproductive health in the workplace and proposes that it would be best protected by imposing an affirmative duty on multi-national enterprises via corporate social responsibility. Origins of human rights, corporate social responsibility, and reproductive health are discussed before turning to the developing stalemate between multi-national enterprises and less developed countries.

Novartis And The U.N. Global Compact Initiative, Lee A. Tavis

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The U.N. Global Compact initiative evolved from a challenge posed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the business community at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 1999. "I call on you--individually through your firms, and collectively through your business associations--to embrace, support, and enact a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labor standards and environmental practices." His vision is "to give a human face to the global market." Over a year of intense interaction among business chief executive officers and associations, non-governmental organizations, labor unions, and four U.N. agencies led to the formulation of nine …

Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Japan's Reshaping of American Labor Law By William B. Gould Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1984. Pp.xii, 166. $19.95.

World Economic Outlook By The Staff of the International Monetary Fund Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund,1984. Pp. ix, 162. $15.00.

Recent Multilateral Debt Restructurings With Official and Bank Creditors By E. Brau and R.C. Williams Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund, 1983. Pp. vii, 28. $5.00.

The Fund, Commercial Banks, and Member Countries By Paul Mentre Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund, 1984. Pp. v, 35. $5.00.

International Law and the New States of Africa By Yilma Makonnen New York: Unipub, 1983. Pp. …

Whither The Commission On Human Rights: A Report After The 35th Session, Gerson Smoger

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The statement that the Commission on Human Rights "functions as the focal point of the United Nation's concentration on the international observance of human rights" is fraught with definitional inconsistencies. Throughout its existence one of the main problems faced by the members of the Commission has been to agree upon the appropriate limits of the expression "human rights." The question arises whether the term includes the right of a retired school teacher to speak out against his country's employment practices or his entitlement to receive social security after his departure from the teaching force. If these are both considered to …