The governance authority of non-state actors in the business and human rights regime

Abstract

The symposium “Governance Authority in Business and Human Rights” explores the authority of non-state actors in the global business and human rights (BHR) regime. Our point of departure is that the involvement of different public and private actors in the BHR regime rests on their authority as governance actors. This alludes most obviously to companies, but also includes other actors. In this framing paper, we investigate these actors’ governance authority in three steps, which provides insights into the different ways in which their power in the BHR regime is (or is not) legitimated. First, we outline how the multiplication of actors in the BHR regime raises questions and challenges regarding its governance. In the second step, we introduce a concept of governance authority that captures distinctive forms of power and legitimacy, and how they connect to human rights. Third, we discuss how the concept of governance authority can be used to study particular non-state actors in the BHR regime, and how the contributions to this symposium do so. In sum, we discuss avenues for research that disentangle the different types of governance power and legitimacy of multiple actors in the BHR regime to clarify their public and private roles as well as their relevance in BHR governance.