Short Course: Business and Human Rights
Date: 8 Sessions: 6, 13, 20, 27, October, 3, 10, 17, 24 November 2025
Time: 13.00 - 15.00 (UK time)
Venue: Online

Course Details
Business and human rights is an area of international human rights law in continuous development at the international and national levels. On successful completion of BIICL's Business and Human Rights course participants will:
- Understand the human rights and environmental impacts resulting from business activities
- Be aware of the core concepts and principles established by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and other standards such as the newly updated OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
- Understand corporate human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) requirements and developments at the international, regional, and national levels - including new mandatory HREDD laws and proposals at the EU level
- Understand the context of business and human rights as a field of work
- During the course participants will consider recent examples of business and human rights issues, including case law
- Participants will also consider the intersection on business and human rights with other developing issues such as Artificial Intelligence and climate change.
Course topics:
- The business and human rights framework
- Developments at the international level
- EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive
- National level HREDD laws
- Case law relating to corporate liability for human rights and environmental harms
- Business and human rights in practice
- Climate change litigation
- Modern slavery and forced labour
Download the programme
Course trainers:
- Dr. Irene Pietropaoli, Senior Fellow in Business and Human Rights, BIICL
- Jasmine Elliott, Research Fellow in Business and Human Rights, BIICL
- Vicky Bowman, Director of Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB) and Hon senior fellow at BIICL
- Dr. Sofia Gonzalez De Aguinaga, Research Leader in Business, ESG & Modern Slavery
Who is the course for?
The course is for a wide range of professionals interested in business and human rights, including in-house counsel, legal practitioners, NGO representatives, government representatives, academics, PhD students and other professionals.
Testimonials from past attendees
"Fantastic course! High-level content was delivered in a clear, interesting and engaging way. Fascinating discussions occurred in every session and helpful resources shared throughout."
"Fabulous course, excellently structured and presented, with plenty of opportunity for questions and discussion."
"Very relevant - new developments referred to throughout whole course."
Training scholarships
The British Institute of International and Comparative Law is committed to equality and opportunity in the legal profession and to support greater engagement of under-represented groups in the legal profession.
In our efforts in this regard we are delighted to offer 3 scholarships for each of our short courses to participants from communities and backgrounds currently under-represented in the legal community.
Applications for training scholarships must be received at least three weeks ahead of the course start date (15 September 2025).
Find out more about training scholarships