Research report 2020 - Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
Due diligence in the international legal order: the structural impact of a complex legal concept
Authors
Krieger, Heike; Peters, Anne; Kreuzer, Leonhard
Departments
Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, Heidelberg
Summary
In international law, due diligence obligations require states to upgrade their procedures and institutional capacities for risk management. Such obligations contribute to enhancing states’ accountability. Simultaneously, the focus on due diligence threatens to dilute substantive legal obligations and thereby to weaken the international legal order. Our book analyses the rise of due diligence obligations in various areas of international law. It also places this development in the context of a current trend towards procedural, as opposed to substantive, obligations.