Program of the 2015 Workshop and Resources From the Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum Held at Columbia University

(2015 Forum participants, from Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum)

Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum is a platform for collaboration among individuals teaching business and human rights worldwide. The Forum seeks to promote and strengthen business and human rights education by fostering collaboration among teachers.

The Forum has just concluded its annual workshop, held at Columbia University May 18-19, 2015. The Workshop included a number of great presentations going to issues of Business and Human Rights pedagogy and the substantive issues that are developing in this new field.

This post includes the program for the 2015 Workshop along with  links and descriptions of resources available to those interested in teaching the human rights elements of business governance, suitable especially for those in advanced undergraduate, law, business and international affairs schools.The PowerPoint of my presentation may be accessed HERE.

Teaching Business and Human Rights Workshop
Monday and Tuesday, May 18-19th, 2015
Columbia University, New York, NY

AGENDA

MONDAY – May 18th, 2015
Jerome Greene Annex (enter through the courtyard next to 435 West 116th Street)
Columbia University, New York, NY

Coffee 8:30 am

Welcome and Introductions 9:00 am

I. Non-Judicial Grievance Mechanisms: 9:30 am – 11:00 am
Teaching Strategies and Materials How are participants teaching non-judicial grievance mechanisms? What are the most effective materials and methodologies to introduce corporate accountability mechanisms like the OECD National Contact Point specific instances complaints?
Presenters: Karin Buhmann, Copenhagen Business School
Sarah Knuckey, Columbia Law School

Break

II. The State Duty to Protect Human Rights: 11:15 am – 12:45 pm
National Action Plans, Legislative Developments Spurred by the UN Working Group’s call for states to develop national action plans (NAPs) on business and human rights, European states have rolled out the first tranche of NAPs and there are fledgling debates in the Global South about the viability and appetite for NAPs. In Europe and elsewhere, legislative proposals would make corporate human rights due diligence mandatory. This session considers these recent developments and how to integrate the state duty to protect into our teaching.
Presenters: Sheldon Leader, University of Essex, School of Law
Rachel Chambers, University of Essex, School of Law
Joanne Bauer, Columbia University, School of International & Public Affairs

Lunch 12:45 pm

III. Using Simulations/Role Plays in the Classroom 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Teaching Forum members will introduce simulations or role-plays used successfully in the classroom.
Presenters: Mark Wielga, University of Denver, Sturm College of Law
Lisa Laplante, New England School of Law
Meg Roggensack, Georgetown University Law Center
Nina Gardner, Johns Hopkins, School of Advanced International Studies

Break

IV. Public Lecture 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Jerome Greene Hall, Room 102A
435 West 116th Street
The Shareholder Value Myth and Corporate Responsibility
– Lynn Stout
Distinguished Professor of Corporate and Business Law, Clarke Business Law Institute, Cornell Law School.

TUESDAY– May 19th, 2015
Jerome Greene Annex
Columbia University, New York, NY

Coffee 8:30 am

V. Business and Human Rights in Emerging Economies 9:00 am – 10:30 am
With an emphasis on developments in China, this session will explore how emerging market multinationals and emerging market home states are engaged in BHR. The session will consider new research areas as well as how to bring this focus to the classroom.
Presenters: Liang Xiaohui, Peking University Law School
Sara Seck, Western University

VI. Civil Society-led BHR Initiatives 10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Researchers and advocates have begun to turn their attention to how to improve corporate human rights due diligence through civil society and/or community monitoring, assessment and grievance mechanism design. This session will explore these new initiatives and their implications for teaching human rights due diligence.
Presenters: Tyler Giannini , Harvard Law School
Larry Catá Backer, Pennsylvania State University

VII. Opportunities for Collaboration 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Participants will discuss ongoing and potential opportunities for collaboration among Teaching Forum participants.
Workshop Close 1:00 pm

Research Network 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Jerome Greene Annex
Columbia University, New York, NY
Workshop participants are invited to attend an additional afternoon session (see Agenda below) of a new research network on public and private CSR governance funded by the Danish Science and Technology Agency. This session will brainstorm potential educational initiatives on business and human rights, with an emphasis on education in the Global South. International Network Grant project funded by the Danish Agency for Science and Technology: CSR between Public and Private – Public institutional conditions for the generation and implementation of CSR norms in Denmark, China and the US Workshop in New York City, 19-21 May 2015.

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Forum Discussion Board

The Forum Discussion Board is a moderated, private space for Forum Members to share information, ask questions of Forum Members, post comments, and generally engage in discussion relating to teaching business and human rights.
For more information on how to become a member, click here.
To read the full guidelines for the Forum Discussion Board, click here.

Syllabi Bank

The Forum maintains a password protected Syllabi Bank for business and human rights courses or modules taught by Forum members.

To access the Syllabi Bank, a member must first submit a syllabus for a business and human rights course or module that they have taught or plan to teach. Syllabi should be sent to Joanne Bauer or Anthony Ewing, and identify any co-authors or co-teachers. Individuals submitting a syllabus will receive a passcode to access the Syllabi Bank when their syllabus is posted.

To replace or remove a syllabus, or with questions about the passcode, contact Greta Moseson.

Handbook Project

The Teaching Business and Human Rights Handbook Project is a collective effort of the Columbia Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum. The Handbook Project grew out of the fourth annual Teaching Business and Human Rights Workshop (May 2014) and is intended to advance business and human rights education by providing teachers an online resource the can use to supplement what they already teach or to help introduce new topics in their courses.

Distinct from a casebook, textbook, or edited volume, the primary audience for the Handbook Project is individuals teaching or planning to teach the subject. The Handbook Project features topical modules following a common template. It will be expanded gradually and updated regularly.

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Welcome to the Teaching Business and Human Rights Syllabus Bank

The Columbia University Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum is a platform for collaboration among individuals teaching “business and human rights” worldwide.

This Syllabi Bank was first compiled for the 2011 Teaching Business and Human Rights Workshop hosted at Columbia Law School. Since then, the Bank has expanded to include syllabi submitted by individuals participating in the online Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum.



This resource is available only to Forum participants who have submitted their own syllabus. The syllabi here are posted for the individual use of Forum participants only. Syllabi should not be made public, distributed or reproduced in any form without the express permission of the author(s).

To access the Syllabi Bank for the first time, please email a copy of your most recent syllabus to: Anthony Ewing, Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School. Include the name of the course and the institution at which it is offered in the body of the email, as well as any co-teachers you would like mentioned. When your syllabus is posted, you will receive a Passcode to access the Syllabi Bank. To replace or remove your syllabus, or with questions about the Passcode, please contact Greta Moseson, Program Coordinator, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School.

If you would like to join the online Forum, please contact Anthony Ewing, Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School, or Joanne Bauer, Adjunct Professor, Columbia School of International & Public Affairs, with information about your course.

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Welcome to the TBHR Forum Handbook Project

We invite you to participate in a collective effort of the Columbia Teaching Business and Human Rights (TBHR) Forum to gather and publish best practices for teaching business and human rights. You will join a network of dedicated instructors to create the first Teaching Business and Human Rights Handbook, a resource that for teachers seeking inspiration and ideas for classroom instruction.

The Handbook, a project suggested by participants at the fourth annual Columbia TBHR Workshop (May 2014), is intended to advance business and human rights education by providing teachers an online resource they can use to supplement what they already teach, or to help them introduce new topics in their courses. Distinct from a casebook, textbook or edited volume, the primary audience for a Handbook is individuals teaching or planning to teach the subject. The Handbook will feature topical modules following a common template. Our goal is to publish an online Handbook that can be expanded gradually and updated regularly.

For the first phase of developing the Handbook, we invite teachers to share their best classroom approaches to introducing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which will be the first topic to be published in the Handbook. If you teach this topic, we welcome you to submit your approach to the topic via an online template.

The Handbook will be edited by members of the TBHR Forum, who will also determine which lesson plans to publish for each topic. Individuals who share their approaches will retain copyright in the original work they submit. (Lesson plans published online will be cited as: [Name], “Lesson Plan: Introduction the UN Guiding Principles,” in Teaching Business and Human Rights Handbook (Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, 2014), online edition.

Please e-mail Anthony Ewing (aewing@law.columbia.edu) with any questions about the Handbook or the submission process.

We look forward to your submissions.

Teaching Handbook Committee, TBHR Forum
Joanne Bauer, Columbia University, School of International & Public Affairs
Anthony Ewing, Columbia Law School
Erika George, University of Utah, S. J. Quinney College of Law
Chris Jochnick, Harvard Law School
Lisa Laplante, New England School of Law
John Richardson, American University School of International Service