The corporate responsibility to respect human rights was formally introduced in 2011 with the unanimous endorsement of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) by the UN Human Rights Council. It is grounded in social expectations and forms part of the companies' “social license to operate.” This paper argues that this responsibility is progressively turning into a legal duty for lead companies to respect human rights in those types of value chains which are characterized by a high level of control by a lead company over its business partners. Our argument rests on two recent legal developments. Firstly, the article analyzes the judicialization of the corporate responsibility to respect in the case law on parent company liability in various jurisdictions, which, we argue, is highly likely to have some implications in relation to certain types of value chains so as to trigger the liability of lead companies for the human rights harms arising out of the activities of entities over which they exercise sufficient control. Secondly, the article delves into the legislative developments which increasingly require lead companies to exercise due diligence so as to prevent and address adverse human rights impacts in their own activities and global value chains.

中文翻译：

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领导公司是否有责任在其全球价值链中尊重人权？

企业尊重人权的责任于 2011 年在联合国人权理事会一致通过《联合国工商业与人权指导原则》（UNGPs）后正式提出。它以社会期望为基础，是公司“社会经营许可”的一部分。本文认为这责任正在逐步转变为合法的义务牵头公司在以牵头公司对其商业伙伴进行高度控制为特征的价值链类型中尊重人权。我们的论点基于最近的两个法律发展。首先，本文分析了在不同司法管辖区的母公司责任判例法中公司责任尊重的司法化，我们认为这很可能对某些类型的价值链产生一些影响，从而引发牵头公司对其行使充分控制权的实体的活动所造成的人权损害承担责任。其次，