As part of a publication series on the topic of international economic law, Miriam Saage-Maaß, Vice Legal Director of ECCHR, co-edited the volume Die Durchsetzung menschenrechtlicher Sorgfaltspflichten von Unternehmen (The Enforcement of Corporate Human Rights Due Diligence Obligations). The publication is the result of a workshop at Humboldt-Universität designed to give a platform to emergent legal scholars. The contributions in this book examine a number of questions linked to the two models of regulating corporate behaviour – the liability model and the transparency model.

The volume aims to highlight the diversity and complexity of the relevant civil law issues. Furthermore, it aims to show the depth and breadth with which those questions are being addressed by up-and-coming young researchers. The editors believe that the contributions in this volume will give rise to further research on the topic of corporate responsibility for human rights.

Liability and compulsory reporting can be seen as instruments for enforcing corporate responsibility for human rights. The first part of the volume discusses questions of legal liability. It concentrates on the underlying theory as well as the precise application of potential liability for corporate human rights violations and the attribution of liability in global corporate structures and supply chains. The contributions in the second part of the volume deal with the EU's CSR guidelines and their function for the shareholder activities. The third part of the volume examines issues around the conflict of laws.

The contributions for the publication were selected after an open application process directed mainly at young civil law scholars. They were presented on 31 March 2017 at a workshop at the Humboldt University in Berlin. The presentations were commented on and discussed by professors of civil law and were subsequently expanded and adapted for publication.