The history and instruments of the business and Human Rights Field: from a ‘New Economic Order’ to Ruggie’s Guiding Principles and beyond

Through this article, we will discuss how the topic of the Responsibility of Transnational Corporations (tncs) and other businesses has evolved since it was first mentioned by developing states interested in the creation of a New International Economic Order (nieo). Since then, the path followed by this theme has been one of great intergovernmental initiatives with a mixed ratio of execution, private commitments, failures, and the hope incarnated in the developments of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Busi- ness and Human Rights (srsg), Professor John Ruggie. A both, descriptive as much as analytical piece, it aims to provide elements of discussion on the issue of whether, the current legal framework of busi- ness and human rights, should be allow to do on its own the transition from soft-law to binding norms, or if that process must be complemented with the refurbished idea of a Treaty.