The Concept of Business and Human Rights in the Context of Current Global Trends

Abstract

The article is devoted to the concepts of business and human rights in metamodernism era (postpostmodern), when the contradictory processes of globalization and glocalization of economical and legal relations simultaneously create new opportunities and challenge the actuality and effectiveness of legal mechanisms of promotion of human rights in business field.It is emphasized that despite some progress in promoting the concept of business and human rights,the question whether international and national law is able to oblige businesses to sustain humanrights remains relevant. It is determined that the concept of business and human rights is based onthe categories of public interest, which is realized and taken into account by voluntary commitmentand implementation of relevant obligations of business entities and positive obligations of the statein the field of human rights. The article analyzes political and economic global trends and challenges which influence theconcept of business and human rights. Increasing asymmetry and inequality, changes in the systemof international economic institutions, especially financial, development of digital technologies,contradictory processes of integration and disintegration, expansion of illegal business and migration,the phenomenon of “Black Swans,” global economic crises and the covid -19 pandemic areprompting the necessity to provide sustainable development and social responsibility to business.Emphasis is placed on raising the level of awareness of business about the necessity and expediencyof observing human rights standards not only for ethical reasons, but also as a means of improvingtheir own success and competitiveness.The article also examines the main trends in the development of law which occur under the influenceof globalization and the demand for a new social contract, such as socialization, anthropologizationand ecologization of law, increasing the impact of crises, conflicts, pandemics on the content of law,expanding the scope and range of legal issues. changing the ratio of international and national legalregulation, changes in the subject area, raising the topics of non-state and global law, convergenceof public and private, changes in the system of sources of international law, blending of legal andnon-legal forms of regulation.It is emphasized that one of the trends in the development of international regulation of businessresponsibility in the field of human rights is the demand for more “strict” legal regulation, but thequestion is the realism and effectiveness of “strengthening” the legal force of international acts aboutbusiness responsibility in the field of human rights.The opinion on its own regulatory value of norms of soft law in the given sphere is expressed.