Private international law in the European directive on corporate due diligence and sustainability

Abstract

Following the final approval of the European Directive on due diligence in sustainability matters, private international law continues to play a fundamental role in guaranteeing access to justice for victims and in establishing the applicable law that will regulate the civil liability regime for companies for human rights violations. The due diligence regime established by the Directive contains minimum requirements that companies must comply with in order to progressively establish a due diligence process, but it does not contain a set of rules on civil liability derived from non–compliance, nor on the reparation of the possible damage caused; therefore, it will be state laws, hand in hand with private international law, that will be applied to complete the non–contractual liability regime in these cases. As we will see in this work, during the process of drafting the Directive, the references to private international law have been modified and reduced, until the promulgation of a final text that opts for the prior harmonisation of substantive law and even leaves in the hands of the States the possibility of considering as mandatory rules all that refers to corporate due diligence, definitively renouncing any progress in the area of private international law.