How do you hold businesses to account for human rights abuses? This is an area of ever-increasing concern and a situation exacerbated by globalisation, where multinational enterprises rely on long and complex supply chains. The answers may be found in the relatively new discipline of Business and Human Rights Law. It traverses civil, criminal, domestic and international law and is developing in exciting and not always predictable ways.

The field encompasses international provisions, such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Human Rights, through to national statutes, such as the UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015. Recent domestic caselaw underlines the importance and dynamism of business and human rights as an area of law. The Court of Appeal’s landmark ruling earlier this year in the World Uyghur Congress case found that the National Crime Agency had unlawfully failed to investigate money laundering offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 where cotton goods made in China and imported into the UK were the product of forced labour.

We will be hearing from speakers who have driven forward the law in this area and about its development, international context and domestic grounding. Where have we got to and what does the future look like? Join judges, practitioners and our eminent guest speakers at a weekend that will provide an ideal introduction to this fascinating field, an advocacy masterclass and important opportunities to practise your own advocacy.