Edited by Caleb Brown, Colin Hollingsead, and Sudipta Rout
Abstract
Many of the goods consumed in our modern economy carry a hidden human cost: that they were created with the use of labor trafficking, a continuation of historic slavery. While labor trafficking is illegal in the U.S. under domestic statutes such as the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) and through commitments to the UN’s Palermo Protocol, there remain massive gaps in the U.S. legal framework that allow for businesses to profit from labor trafficking while avoiding legal accountability. This article examines the current scope of corporate duties to prevent labor trafficking in supply chains and the gaps in labor trafficking law that allow businesses to avoid accountability for exploiting labor trafficking. By highlighting the case of H&M’s labor trafficking reforms, the article will argue that federal regulation incentivizes corporate reform. This article advocates for reforms to U.S. anti-labor trafficking laws and a switch to a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to combating labor trafficking in American supply chains.
