Browsing by Author "Sund, Mirja"

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GOVERNANCE BEYOND BORDERS The Extraterritorial Reach of OECD National Contact Points for Responsible Business Conduct
(2023-06-20) Sund, Mirja; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
As increasingly powerful actors in a globalised world, multinational corporations are often able to evade responsibility for human rights violations and other misconduct occurring in their own operations or supply chains. Since courts face limitations when attempting to exert jurisdiction outside of their state territories, state-based non-judicial mechanisms such as the OECD National Contact Points (NCPs) have been established to fill this gap by mediating between corporations and victims of corporate human rights abuses with the aim of providing remedy to the latter. The NCPs can accept complaints about corporate conduct outside of their own territories, which raises the question of whether these complaints are similarly effective as domestic cases. To investigate the impact of such extraterritorial powers on the outcome of the cases, this thesis employs a mixed-method approach. A quantitative part uses logistic regression analysis to test in a sample of 233 NCP cases between 2000 and 2022 whether extraterritoriality at least partially determines the success of complaints. The results show that extraterritorial cases are less likely to end in an agreement, although this relationship can only be detected in the data after 2011. Following this section, a qualitative part analyses two cases in a comparative case study to identify potential mechanisms that explain these findings. It finds that trust between the complainants and defendants is a key requirement for the success of the mediation, and that cultural differences and an imbalance in power can make it more difficult for NCPs to build trust between the parties.
Governing Corporate Accountability: Extraterritoriality and the Effectiveness of NCP Mediation
(2025-03) Sund, Mirja; Nistotskaya, Marina; The Quality of Governmen Institute
As dominant actors in a globalised economy, multinational corporations can evade responsibility for labour and human rights violations and other misconduct within their own operations, those of their clients, or across supply chains. To address this challenge, OECD governments established the Guideline for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct, aiming to promote corporate responsibility and mitigate adverse impacts. The OECD Guidelines’ enforcement mechanism is the non-judicial system of National Contact Points (NCPs), which mediates disputes between corporations and affected parties. Notably, NCPs can accept complaints concerning corporate conduct beyond their own jurisdiction, raising questions about whether extraterritorial cases are resolved as effectively as domestic ones. This paper examines the impact of extraterritoriality on NCP effectiveness, understood as the likelihood of mediation reaching an agreement, using a mixed-method approach. A logistic regression analysis of 233 NCP cases (2000–2022) finds that extraterritorial cases are less likely to result in an agreement. A comparative case study further reveals that extraterritoriality may weaken NCP effectiveness both directly, through the complexity of evidence—its availability and interpretability—and indirectly, via intercultural and language challenges that affect trust between parties. These findings underscore the need to strengthen NCP capacity to address the unique challenges of mediating transnational disputes.