Digital-Ready Human Rights Due Diligence under EU Sustainability Regulation
(2026) JAMM07 20261Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract
- This thesis examines how digital-ready regulatory design shapes the operationalisation of human rights due diligence (HRDD) within EU sustainability regulation. It focuses on the growing integration of digital and informational infrastructures into legal frameworks governing sustainability reporting, traceability, monitoring, and corporate due diligence. More specifically, the thesis analyses how the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), the EU Battery Regulation, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) structure HRDD through mechanisms such as interoperability systems, traceability infrastructures, machine-readable reporting architectures,... (More)
- This thesis examines how digital-ready regulatory design shapes the operationalisation of human rights due diligence (HRDD) within EU sustainability regulation. It focuses on the growing integration of digital and informational infrastructures into legal frameworks governing sustainability reporting, traceability, monitoring, and corporate due diligence. More specifically, the thesis analyses how the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), the EU Battery Regulation, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) structure HRDD through mechanisms such as interoperability systems, traceability infrastructures, machine-readable reporting architectures, and data-driven governance processes. The study is situated within longstanding criticisms of HRDD concerning weak implementation, fragmented information flows, limited traceability, and difficulties in monitoring complex global value chains. Within the EU context, these developments raise important legal and governance questions regarding how digitalisation reshapes the functioning, visibility, and enforceability of HRDD obligations. The thesis adopts a primarily doctrinal methodology combined with qualitative document analysis and interpretive regulatory analysis. The legal analysis examines the selected legislation alongside other relevant materials, while the empirical component analyses publicly available corporate disclosures from selected companies identified through the World Benchmarking Alliance and the Global Battery Alliance. The analysis is structured through the analytical lens of digital-ready regulatory design, focusing on the elements of clarity, executability, interoperability, integrability, and embeddedness. The thesis argues that digital-ready regulatory design increasingly restructures HRDD through informational architectures that organise how sustainability-related information is generated, standardised, circulated, monitored, verified, and made visible across value chains. Although these developments may strengthen traceability, comparability, and monitoring capacities, the thesis also identifies important limitations. The increasing reliance on structured and digitally processable data risks narrowing sustainability governance towards harms and risks that can be standardised, quantified, and rendered visible within formal informational systems. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9233701
- author
- Brito Rabelo, Gustavo LU
- supervisor
-
- Radu Mares LU
- organization
- course
- JAMM07 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Human Rights Due Diligence – Digital-Ready Regulatory Design – EU Sustainability Regulation – CSRD – CSDDD – ESPR – EU Battery Regulation – Sustainability Governance
- language
- English
- id
- 9233701
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-15 09:12:39
- date last changed
- 2026-06-15 09:12:39
@misc{9233701,
abstract = {{This thesis examines how digital-ready regulatory design shapes the operationalisation of human rights due diligence (HRDD) within EU sustainability regulation. It focuses on the growing integration of digital and informational infrastructures into legal frameworks governing sustainability reporting, traceability, monitoring, and corporate due diligence. More specifically, the thesis analyses how the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), the EU Battery Regulation, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) structure HRDD through mechanisms such as interoperability systems, traceability infrastructures, machine-readable reporting architectures, and data-driven governance processes. The study is situated within longstanding criticisms of HRDD concerning weak implementation, fragmented information flows, limited traceability, and difficulties in monitoring complex global value chains. Within the EU context, these developments raise important legal and governance questions regarding how digitalisation reshapes the functioning, visibility, and enforceability of HRDD obligations. The thesis adopts a primarily doctrinal methodology combined with qualitative document analysis and interpretive regulatory analysis. The legal analysis examines the selected legislation alongside other relevant materials, while the empirical component analyses publicly available corporate disclosures from selected companies identified through the World Benchmarking Alliance and the Global Battery Alliance. The analysis is structured through the analytical lens of digital-ready regulatory design, focusing on the elements of clarity, executability, interoperability, integrability, and embeddedness. The thesis argues that digital-ready regulatory design increasingly restructures HRDD through informational architectures that organise how sustainability-related information is generated, standardised, circulated, monitored, verified, and made visible across value chains. Although these developments may strengthen traceability, comparability, and monitoring capacities, the thesis also identifies important limitations. The increasing reliance on structured and digitally processable data risks narrowing sustainability governance towards harms and risks that can be standardised, quantified, and rendered visible within formal informational systems.}},
author = {{Brito Rabelo, Gustavo}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Digital-Ready Human Rights Due Diligence under EU Sustainability Regulation}},
year = {{2026}},
}