General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6153 / JDOC6153 |
| Course name: | Business and Human Rights |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | June |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credit / 6 credits |
1.2 Course description
With the rise in the power and functions of corporations in a globalised free market economy, business enterprises are increasingly expected to respect human rights and contribute to the realisation of the Sustainable development Goals (SDGs), rather than merely maximise profit for shareholders. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and several other international standards reflect this social expectation. This expectation is increasingly becoming a legal obligation due a variety of “push and pull” factors such as the enactment of modern slavery and mandatory human rights due diligence laws, import bans, strategic litigation, shareholder activism, consumer consciousness and civil society advocacy.
Against this background, this course aims to enable students to explore the evolution of business and human rights (BHR) as a specialised field, assess its relationship with other concept such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), and examine critically various regulatory initiatives that seek to promote business respect for human rights. Students will be exposed to various BHR issues falling within the three broad sets of questions: why corporations should have human rights responsibilities; what the nature and extent of these responsibilities is; and how corporations could be held accountable and victims be provided effective remedies for business-related human rights abuses. Case studies and hypothetical scenarios will be used to inform the discussion. The term “human rights” in this course is taken in a broad sense to include both legal and moral/ethical responsibilities of business in the areas of human rights, labour rights, the environment and climate change.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Surya Deva | TBA | N/A | By email |
| Course convenor | David Birchall | TBA | N/A | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Explain analytically (i) the concept of BHR and its relation to CSR as well as corporate governance (ii) the historical evolution of the ideas of BHR and CSR, and (iii) the changing role and place of corporations in society;
CLO 2 Examine various justifications for the human rights responsibilities of corporations;
CLO 3 Apply BHR regulations, principles and initiatives to solve innovatively human rights and environmental dilemmas that corporations face when operating in different countries;
CLO 4 Assess the relative efficacy of different BHR regulatory initiatives, including modern slavery and mandatory human rights due diligence laws and the proposed BHR treaty; and
CLO 5 Explore various judicial and non-judicial remedial pathways available to hold business enterprises accountable for human rights abuses.
2.2 LLM and JD Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link:
LLM – https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-plo/
JD – https://course.law.hku.hk/jd-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Class participation | N/A | 10% | 1 ,2 ,3, 4, 5 | |
| Group exercises | TBC | 30% | 1 ,2 ,3, 4, 5 | |
| Take home exam | TBC | 60% | 1 ,2 ,3, 4, 5 |
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
To be advised by course convenor(s).
3.3 Grading Criteria
Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Seminar: | 3 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
| Private study time: | 9.5 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
To be advised by course convenor(s).
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Reading materials are posted on Moodle |
| Core reading list: | TBA |
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/