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The paper's aim is to analyze and assess the importance of a recent US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit decision in the case of Sun Capital Partners III LP v. New England Teamsters and Trucking Industry Pension Fund with respect to the court's conclusion that a private equity fund constitutes a “trade or business” for purposes of the ERISA multiemployer pension withdrawal liability and that, therefore, the fund could, under a “piercing the veil” type of approach, be held liable for the ERISA withdrawal liability of a bankrupt portfolio company.

The paper provides historical background on termination and withdrawal liability under ERISA; explains the facts of the Sun Capital case; and offers preliminary reflections on the “investment plus” approach in ERISA context, the significance of the offset mechanism, why the Sun Capital decision is a significant victory for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the liability of one portfolio company for the pension obligations of other portfolio companies owned by the same private equity fund, potential unintended consequences for tax-advantaged benefit plans of portfolio companies; the possibility that different pension plans at different portfolio companies may violate non-discrimination rules, the application of Sun Capital beyond ERISA, and the potential effect of this ruling on taxation of carried interest.

The employer and all “trades or businesses” in its “controlled group, including, under certain circumstances, a private equity fund, are liable for the employer's share of unfunded pension liabilities if the employer withdraws from a multi-employer defined-benefit pension plan.

Practical guidance from experienced financial services lawyers is given in the paper.

The object of this research is the reconstruction of the existing legal response by European Union states to the phenomenon of immigration. It seeks to analyse the process of conferral of protection.

One main dimension is selected and discussed: the case law of the national courts. The study focuses on the legal status of immigrants resulting from the intervention of these national courts.

The research shows that although the courts have conferred an increasing protection on immigrants, this has not challenged the fundamental principle of the sovereignty of the states to decide, according to their discretionary prerogatives, which immigrants are allowed to enter and stay in their territories. Notwithstanding the differences in the general constitutional and legal structures, the research also shows that the courts of the three countries considered – France, Germany and Spain – have progressively moved towards converging solutions in protecting immigrants.

The research contributes to a better understanding of the different legal orders analysed.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of crossvergence from international human resource management (IHRM) as a conceptual lens for understanding and analyzing the formation of socially (ir)responsible employment practices in supplier firms in global production networks (GPNs). The crossvergence perspective can particularly contribute to understanding how the agency of suppliers is influenced by the interaction of global–local dynamics.

The paper illustrates how the formation of socially (ir)responsible employment practices can be understood as a process of crossvergence. Subsequently, it reviews and structures insights from GPN and IHRM literature to detail the process.

The paper underscores the complicated role of suppliers in ensuring decent work in GPNs. Suppliers face a multitude of global and local interacting, and partially conflicting, demands. They process these demands as active agents and need to develop suitable employment practices in response.

The paper supports the nascent discourse on supplier agency in forming socially responsible employment practices. It connects different streams of literature to illuminate the perspective of suppliers, introduces IHRM insights to the debate and offers conceptual guidance for analyzing interacting global and local pressures on suppliers.

This study theorizes about the development of dominant tactics within social movements, as certain tactics within a tactical repertoire are used frequently and imbued with ideological significance. Little research has been done on hierarchies within tactical repertoires, assuming that all tactics within a repertoire are equal. Between 1974 and 2008, the US Religious Right attempted over 200 anti-gay referendums and initiatives to retract or prevent gay rights laws. This research examines how the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement developed campaign tactics to fight these direct democracy measures. This research expands the existing literature on tactical repertoires by theorizing about the mechanisms by which tactics become dominant, namely, their affirmation by victories, responsiveness to countermovement escalation, and involvement of institutionalized social movement organizations to disseminate tactics. This research contradicts existing movement–countermovement literature that suggests that movements do not develop dominant tactics when mobilizing in opposition to a countermovement.

This paper aims to investigate to what extent and for which reasons the codes of conduct and social audits of multinational corporations (MNCs) have failed to change practices within Chinese factories. A special attention is given to the social compliance initiatives (SCIs) and multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) which did not overcome the main obstacles of the compliance approach.

This research is based on a fieldwork in China, including 36 semi-constructed interviews with practitioners involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR), participant observation in the CSR programme of the International Labour Organisation office in Beijing and several visits of factories involved in CSR programmes. Secondary sources are used to estimate the distribution of value added along global value chains (GVCs).

The codes of conduct and social audits tend to reproduce the domination of MNCs within GVCs. This paper highlights some obstacles – and opportunities – for CSR appropriate to the Chinese context.

Only a few MNCs agreed to meet the author and speak openly. No one allowed the author to visit their suppliers’ factories.

The findings of this study suggest that the most widespread approach to CSR by MNCs is flawed. More attention should be given to specific institutional contexts and to workers’ participation.

CSR discourse and practices in China are put in the context of GVCs and in the transformation of Chinese industry and labour relations. This method allows going beyond a case study approach. Instrumentations of several SCIs and MSIs are also analysed in detail.

To contribute to the development of a more complete theory of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), this study aims to focus on media attention as an under-researched antecedent. Media transmit information about (good or bad) business practices and information recipients often adjust their behavior accordingly. Although media often uncover scandals in supply chains, no systematic understanding explicates how they shape lead firms’ reactions to scandals. This empirical study investigates how media attention to a major supply chain scandal influences buying companies’ SSCM.

The research setting is the fashion industry, five years after the Rana Plaza building collapse. Matched SSCM data from 73 fashion lead firms and news articles collected from major outlets were analyzed using ordinary least squares regression analyzes.

This study generates nuanced insights into the role of the media in triggering SSCM. Certain facets of media attention (direct media exposure and negative framing) result in higher levels of SSCM, others have no significant effect (media visibility) and some result in less SSCM (positive framing).

The varying effects of different facets of media attention on SSCM have not been established previously. Both media and supply chain researchers should address these unique effects in their continued assessments.

External stakeholders can use these findings to devise more effective ways to influence lead firms and improve social and environmental conditions in supply chains.

This study is the first empirical investigation of the effects of various facets of media attention on SSCM.