The Network Science, International Law, and Corporations: a Theoretical Framework for Corporate Accountability

Abstract

The network science, used for analysing a wide range of physical, biological, and social phenomena, could be a guide in developing a global holistic and coherent model for sustainable and accountable businesses operating within the limits of planetary boundaries and respecting human rights. In theorizing and shaping a corporate human rights accountability mechanism, we can use 1) the social and organizational network analysis to understand the corporate organizational model and the actors of the global governance network, and 2) the legal network analysis to demonstrate the reflection of these social and organizational phenomena in the legal web of international, regional, and national regulatory regimes. The new model of international governance network designed for ensuring an effective corporate accountability mechanism, may be reimagined and organized as a ‘glocal’ network of networks. This international network would consist of formal and informal, vertical and horizontal, regional and national interconnected sub-networks operating through interactive communication and consultation processes among all relevant public and private stakeholders. In this article, the ongoing work of the Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights, on establishing an accountability mechanism under the Draft Business and Human Rights Treaty and its Draft Optional Protocol, is analysed through the lens of the network theory in order to demonstrate that the envisaged institutions under these draft documents and their functioning strategies can be conceptualized and further developed based on the theories and methods of network science.