Historical legal developments

Country developments, cases and document notes, ordered by the date of the underlying record. These accounts were newly written and source-checked in October 2026. The older dates identify the events or documents; they are not claimed publication dates for these articles.

1. 11 June 2021
   Germany: Parliament adopts the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act in 2021Germany · Historical parliamentary adoption
2. 2021
   Business and human rights: a historical map of national developments through 2021Comparative law · Historical comparative record
3. 29 November 2020
   Switzerland: why the 2020 responsible-business initiative failed despite a popular majoritySwitzerland · Constitutional initiative rejected
4. 29 April 2020
   The 2020 promise of EU due-diligence legislation for 2021 was an agenda, not an enacted lawEuropean Union · Legislative initiative announced
5. 28 February 2020
   Canada: Nevsun allowed Eritrean workers’ customary-international-law claims to proceedCanada · Motion-to-strike appeal dismissed
6. 14 May 2019
   Netherlands: the 2019 Child Labour Due Diligence Act and its commencement gapNetherlands · Bill adopted; commencement delegated
7. 10 April 2019
   United Kingdom: Vedanta and the route to an English trial over alleged Zambian pollutionUnited Kingdom · Jurisdiction appeal dismissed
8. 26 November 2018
   Italy: the 2018 review of its first business-and-human-rights action planItaly · Action-plan review published
9. 22 June 2018
   Luxembourg: the 2018–2019 national action plan and its 2019 successorLuxembourg · National action plan adopted
10. 13 March 2018
    Sweden: Statskontoret’s 2018 review called for investigation of binding diligence rulesSweden · Government review and recommendations
11. 14 February 2018
    Shell’s 2018 jurisdiction victory was reversed: the Okpabi procedural recordUnited Kingdom / Nigeria · 2018 ruling reversed in 2021
12. 27 March 2017
    France: the 2017 duty-of-vigilance law created a plan and implementation dutyFrance · Historical statute adopted