ALSA 2025 meeting

The pivotal role that the private sector plays in serving the interests of future generations has received renewed awareness in recent years. This article takes a deeper dive into corporate sustainability due diligence responsibilities from a global perspective. In 2024, the European Union (EU) adopted the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), aiming to foster sustainable and responsible corporate behavior within companies’ operations and across their global value chains. The directive requires companies to identify and address the adverse impacts of their activities on human rights and the environment, with respect to their own operations, their subsidiaries, and the operations of their business partners along the companies’ value chains. In 2025, the European Commission proposed the Omnibus package, seeking to reduce the regulatory burden imposed by major sustainability-related frameworks in the EU, including the CSDDD. Furthermore, several EU member states had already introduced due diligence legislations at the national level prior to the CSDDD.

While these frameworks have been welcomed by many, they have also raised critical questions, such as whether they could be attempts to universalize European values while reinforcing existing power hierarchies. This article seeks to contribute to the field by examining the CSDDD from a Global South perspective. It analyzes the impact of the framework – particularly in light of the amendments introduced by the Omnibus package – in major emerging markets such as China. The purpose is to shed light on the importance of Global South communities developing their own due diligence legislations. In the absence of such efforts, there might be a substantial risk that the Global South will (overly) rely on legal frameworks originating from the Global North, thereby reinforcing the existing asymmetric relationship between the two.