The importance of context was at the core of the SC Journal of International Law & Business Symposium “Navigating the Global Nexus: Business, Human Rights, and Sustainability in the Nuclear Age.”

During his keynote Thursday evening, Phillip Chritton, former UPS deputy general counsel-international and Sonoco Visiting Fellow Executive in Residence at the Darla Moore School of Business, talked about the difficulty of imposing human rights responsibility across a global supply chain in the current global economic order, reminding attendees to reflect on their own impact.

The symposium topics were selected based on student interest, according to 3L Heddy McGrey, editor-in-chief of the South Carolina Journal of International Law & Business.

The big picture

International business relies on an interconnected world. James Yap says when taking today’s global supply chains make human rights violations unavoidable.

Yap, a Toronto-based international human rights lawyer and acting director of the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, offered Eritrea, a country in Africa, as an example.

Eritrea does not have free elections or a constitution. Upon turning 18, all citizens are conscripted into a mandatory national service program, which human rights experts equate to modern slavery. Eritrea also supplies a significant amount of the world’s zinc, gold and copper, which makes them a product of slave labor. 

Tell me more

The symposium spotlighted environmental impact in the third panel, “Human Rights Challenges in the Nuclear Era: Nuclear Weapons, Environmental Impacts, and Legal Ramifications.”

Timothy Mousseau, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences with a Research Concentration in Ecology and Evolution, spoke about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The radioactive elements that were released have a half-life of 30 years. In the nearly 40 years that have passed, half of the radiation is gone, but Mousseau says the damage lingers in the plants, animals, and people.

John Tierney, executive director at the Center for Arms Control & Non-Proliferation and former nine-term congressman for the state of Massachusetts, was quick to remind attendees of the more direct, immediate and “horrifying” damage of nuclear development, namely weapons.

Meet the experts

The panelists represented a selection of experts in criminal law, environmental law, and international policy.

• Rachel Chambers, Assistant Professor of Business Law at the University of Connecticut, Barrister
• Sarah Dadush, Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School
• Brook Andrews, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina
• William Moon, Edward M. Robertson Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

Bottom line

According to David Garrett, attorney at Maynard Nexsen and one of the symposium panelists, international law is about people.

“It can be hard to determine what’s right. We have common law jurisdictions, and foreign law... but we also have to look at culture expectations, and we have to deal with them,” Garrett says.