A Study Of The Human Rights Implications Of The Fast Fashion Industry In Asia

A STUDY OF THE
HUMAN RIGHTS
IMPLICATIONS OF
THE FAST
FASHION
INDUSTRY IN ASIA
Rachel Tang (rachel.tang128@gmail.com)
A dissertation submitted in April 2015 to the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences for
the course Global Commodities Law, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the LL.B. (Hons) at SOAS, University of London.

2 of 34 rachel.tang128@gmail.com
1. Introduction
1.1. THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY
Fast fashion retailers dominate high streets across the United Kingdom, a telling sign of a
thriving industry with market leaders such as Zara, H&M and Topshop garnering revenues
that far surpass the gross domestic products (GDPs) of many developing countries. Much of
the success of the industry relies on its specialised business model, which differs from that of
the traditional fashion industry. It emphasises ‘stocking inexpensive fashion forward items in
limited quantities that would encourage frequent store visits and purchases’,1 achieved
through an amalgam of techniques known as “lean retailing” and “quick response”
manufacturing.2 The industry first took off in the 1990s, amidst liberalisation of international
trade regimes allowing fashion retailers to relocate production from the Global North to
developing countries in Asia, where labour costs are low.3 By 2003, developing countries
produced nearly three quarters of garment exports.4 At the same time, high-profile sweatshop
scandals drew public attention to human rights and corporate social responsibility (CSR);
apparel industry pioneers such as Nike began adopting CSR policies and codes of conduct to
ensure more sustainable and ethical product sourcing,5 which encouraged other brands to
follow suit. Some retailers such as H&M and ASOS now have policies specifically on human
rights.6
1 Ian Malcolm Taplin, ‘Global Commodity Chains and Fast Fashion: How the Apparel Industry
Continues to Re-Invent Itself’ (2014) 18(3) Competition and Change 248.
2 ibid 247.
3 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), ‘The Least Developed
Countries Report’ (26 May 2004) UNCTAD/LDC/2004 212.
4 International Labour Organisation (ILO), ‘Promoting Fair Globalisation in Textiles and Clothing in a
Post-MFA Environment’ (Tripartite Meeting on Promoting Fair Globalization in Textiles and Clothing
in a Post-MFA Environment, 2005) 5.
5 Network for Business Sustainability, ‘Just Do It: How Nike Turned Disclosure into an Opportunity’
(February 2012) <nbs.net/wp-content/uploads/RI-Just-Do-It-How-Nike-Turned-Disclosure-into-an-
Opportunity.pdf> accessed 6 April 2015.
6 H&M, ‘Human Rights Policy’ (November 2012)
<sustainability.hm.com/en/sustainability/downloads-resources/policies/policies/human-rights-
policy.html> accessed 6 April 2015; ASOS, ‘Human Rights’
<www.asosplc.com/responsibility/fashion-with-integrity/the-united-nations-global-compact/human-
rights.aspx> accessed 6 April 2015.

Both the public and civil society are becoming increasingly concerned with the labour
conditions and human rights of garment workers in the fast fashion industry, especially since
the 2013 collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, a building which housed many garment
factories producing for brands such as Benetton, Mango and Primark, and the earlier 2012
Tazreen Fashion factory fire, also in Bangladesh. At the time of this writing, there are still
pending lawsuits related to these disasters and countless victims and their families have yet to
receive satisfactory compensation. The ILO set up the Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund in
2014, but in the run up to the second anniversary of the tragedy, contributions from fashion
brands still lag behind.7
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the key trends in human rights violations found
within Asian garment factories producing for fast fashion retailers, and a sample of initiatives
that have been adopted by different stakeholders in order to remedy these problems, mostly
drawn from research into academic literature and non-governmental organisation (NGO)
publications. With theoretical reference to pertinent themes such as neoliberal capitalism,
globalisation and developmentalism, I explore why the fast fashion industry gained
prominence, and why labour problems within the industry are often inadequately framed in
human rights discourse when other socioeconomic forces have clearly been instrumental to
the creation of this governance gap. In other words, this piece is a commentary on the
relations between actors from the Global North and South and the resulting global inequality,
using the fast fashion industry as an example.
1.2. BUSINESS MODEL AND SUPPLY CHAIN
To begin our discussion of the fast fashion industry, a brief summary of its business model and
the relevant global supply chain (GSC) is necessary. Pioneered and refined by firms such as
Benetton and Zara, the business model targets young and fashion-conscious consumers and
7 Sali Tripathi, ‘Mind the Gap: As Companies and Governments Dither over Compensating Rana
Plaza Workers, Victims Suffer’ (Institute for Business and Human Rights, 9 April 2015)
<www.ihrb.org/commentary/rana-plaza-factory-collapse-two-year-anniversary.html > accessed 9
April 2015.

consists of procuring small orders of cheaply produced garments with high fashion content. 8
The highly adapted model requires incredible flexibility and short lead times enabling quick
turnaround times as short as four weeks from design to store front.9 In addition, the popularity
of Internet retailing has grown in recent years,10 and many retailers now allow consumers to
buy online and collect within stores. The industry’s expansion has been assisted by the gradual
liberalisation of international trade regimes since the 1970s, culminating in significant events
including China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001 and the end of
the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) in 2005. Simultaneously, technological advancements have
allowed retailers to analyse trends with greater accuracy, improve supply logistics and quickly
make repeat orders.11 These have all been instrumental to facilitating efficient “lean retailing”
and “quick response” systems, which are not dissimilar to the “lean production” and “just-in-
time” management systems found in other manufacture industries. Sourcing or ‘middleman’
firms based in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan, such as the Li & Fung Group and
Newtimes Group, have also played a critical role in coordinating global supply chains and
connecting retailers from the Global North with garment factories in Asia.12
The typical manufacturing process for fast fashion garments can be crudely divided
into three stages: design, manufacture and retail. Beginning in leading fashion cities of the
Global North, such as London and New York, designers create a conceptual design based on
the latest trends, which is then passed onto product developers who create prototypes and
work out the final details.13 Retailers then contract garment factories to manufacture the
product, either directly or through a sourcing firm. This stage of the process is largely an
assembly exercise. The factories procure textiles and other component parts, which are then
cut and sewn into garments. The labour required here is extremely low-skilled and poorly
8 Taplin (n 1) 248.
9 ibid 256.
10 Christel Lane and Jocelyn Probert, National Capitalisms, Global Production Networks (OUP 2009) 81.
11 Taplin (n 1) 250, 258.
12 Lane and Probert (n 10) 133-134.
13 Andrew Brooks, Clothing Poverty: The Hidden World of Fast Fashion and Second-hand Clothes (Zed Books
2015) 15.

paid, with each worker responsible for just one task – often it is repetitively sewing a single
seam in every garment. It is worth noting that similar, if not worse, labour conditions are
found on cotton farms and in ginneries and textile factories. The finished garments are then
exported to retailers back in the Global North, who manipulate marketing and visual
merchandising techniques to entice consumer demand.14 Clearly, there are huge wage and
skill disparities between the stages of production, with the designers and retailers at both ends
of the chain placed to receive the most profits.15 As a comprehensive discussion of the human
rights issues found across the entire supply chain is far beyond the scope of this essay, I have
chosen to draw specific focus to the manufacturing stage, commonly carried out within
garment factories in Asia.
14 ibid 31.
15 ibid 15.

2. Trends of Human Rights Violations within the
Industry
2.1. INTRODUCTION
China, India, Bangladesh and Vietnam are among some of the major garment-exporting
countries in Asia.16 Although the socioeconomic and political context will necessarily differ in
each country, they are all developing countries and the common human rights issues found
across garment factories can be surmised as an aggregate of poor labour laws and restrictions
on collective action. The term “human rights” is used in this essay in a Western liberal sense
to indicate fundamental moral rights attributed to humanity, and recognised by some
international legal instrument.
2.2. LABOUR REGULATIONS
The right to a living wage, allowing the worker and his family to meet basic needs, is a human
right according to the United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR),17 and this view is supported by Article 7 of the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).18 However, garment workers work for long
hours and are often paid low wages that just meet the legal minimum, which is far below the
living wage.19 NGOs confirm this to be the case in many countries including Bangladesh and
Cambodia.20
16 World Trade Organisation (WTO), ‘International Trade Statistics’ (2014) 58.
17 (adopted 10 December 1948) UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution (Res) 217 A(III), arts 23(3),
25(1).
18 (adopted 16 December 1966, entered into force 3 January 1976) UNGA Res 2200A (XXI).
19 Oxfam, ‘Steps Towards a Living Wage in Global Supply Chains’ (2014)
<oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/oxfam/bitstream/10546/336623/1/ib-steps-towards-living-wage-
global-supply-chains-101214-en.pdf> accessed 16 December 2014, 5.
20 War on Want, ‘Fashion Victims II: How UK Clothing Retailers are Keeping Workers in Poverty’
(2008) <www.waronwant.org/attachments/Fashion%20Victims%20II.pdf> accessed 23 February
2015, 6; Human Rights Watch, ‘Work Faster or Get Out: Labor Right Abuses in Cambodia’s Garment
Industry’ (2015) <www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/cambodia0315_ForUpload.pdf> accessed
6 April 2015, 39-41.

Despite factories alleging that all overtime work is voluntary, in reality workers are
forced to work overtime,21 often exceeding the legal working limits and with little or no
compensation,22 contrary to the ICESCR.23 Threats commonly used by factory managers
demanding overtime work include dismissals and wage deductions.24 A report found that 94%
of Cambodian factories investigated violated overtime regulations,25 and that a factory
dismissed 40 workers for refusing to do overtime work.26 In another factory in Bangladesh,
workers were beaten by managers for failing to meet unreasonable production targets.27
Widespread restrictions on the freedom of association, contrary to the UDHR28 and
ICESCR,29 are both a human rights concern and a contributing factor to the persistence of
poor human rights enforcement in the industry. State authorities are routinely complicit in
suppressing collective action, through the use of violence and arbitrary detentions, sometimes
leading to death.30 Moreover in China, although the law allows workers to unionise, in reality
the only legally recognised trade union is state-owned.31 Similarly in Bangladesh, prior to the
Rana Plaza disaster the government only recognised a small number of unions.32 On the
factory side, the problem is exacerbated by the use of short contracts, allowing managers to
cull dissent through threats of dismissal or non-renewal of contract.33 The lack of freedom of
21 Lane and Probert (n 10) 263.
22 ibid 264.
23 ICESCR (n 18) art 7.
24 Doug Miller, ‘Towards Sustainable Labour Costing in the Global Apparel Industry: Some evidence
from UK Fashion Retail’ (Capturing the Gains, 2013)
<r4d.dfid.gov.uk/PDF/Outputs/tradepolicy/ctg-wp-2013-14.pdf> accessed 12 April 2015, 5.
25 Human Rights Watch (n 20) 8.
26 ibid 7-8.
27 Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, ‘International Label Children’s Clothing Made
Under Slave-like Conditions in Bangladesh’ (10 March 2015)
<www.globallabourrights.org/alerts/bangladesh-jeans-plus-pullandbear-lcwaikiki> accessed 23 March
2015.
28 UDHR (n 17) art 23.
29 ICESCR (n 18) art 8.
30 Human Rights Watch (n 20) 40; Yen Snaing, ‘Police Arrest Protesting Garment Workers’ The
Irrawaddy (Rangoon, 4 March 2015) <www.irrawaddy.org/burma/police-arrest-protesting-garment-
workers.html> accessed 6 March 2015.
31 Trade Union Law 2001 (People’s Republic of China), arts 2-3.
32 Human Rights Watch, ‘Bangladesh: Protect Garment Workers’ Rights’ (6 February 2014)
<www.hrw.org/news/2014/02/06/bangladesh-protect-garment-workers-rights> accessed 12 April
2015.

association has led to a rigid top-down model of human rights, where rights are incrementally
conferred onto workers.
2.3. HEALTH AND SAFETY
Occupational health at work is considered to be a human right in the UDHR and ICESCR,34
and the ILO confirms this view.35 Health and safety regulations at the workplace are often
inadequate or poorly enforced. An ongoing issue is building safety, which is often overlooked
because of corruption between factory owners and government officials. Besides the infamous
collapse of Rana Plaza, between 2007 and 2013, over 700 workers died from factory fires in
countries such as China and Bangladesh.36 It is argued that the deaths could have been
avoided if not for corruption.37
Moreover, consider the use of sandblasting in the production of jeans, a cheap but
dangerous technique that creates the fashionable distressed aesthetic. Without adequate
training and protection, as is often the case in garment factories,38 workers risk contracting
silicosis,39 an irreversible and fatal lung disease. Despite many retailers such as H&M, Mango
and New Look banning the use of sandblasting in supplier factories,40 reports reveal that it is
34 UDHR (n 17) art 23(1); ICESCR (n 18) arts 7(b), 8, 12.
35 ILO, Occupational Safety and Health Convention (adopted 22 June 1981, entered into force 11
August 1983) C155.
36 Norman Bishara and David Hess, ‘Human Rights and a Corporation’s Duty to Combat Corruption’
in Robert Bird, Daniel R Cahoy and Jamie Darin Prenkert (eds), Law, Business and Human Rights
(Edward Elgar Publishing 2014) 77.
37 ibid 77-78.
38 Clean Clothes Campaign, ‘Deadly Denim: Sandblasting in the Bangladesh Garment Industry’ (2013)
<www.cleanclothes.org/resources/publications/ccc-deadly-denim.pdf > accessed 12 April 2015, 5.
39 World Health Organisation, ‘International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health
Problems (ICD-10) In Occupational Health’ (1999) WHO/SDE/OEH/99.14, 21.
40 H&M, ‘Joint Ban on Sandblasting of Textiles’ (2010)
<sustainability.hm.com/en/sustainability/downloads-resources/case-studies/joint-ban-on-sand-
blasting.html> accessed 6 April 2015; Punto Fa SL, ‘Code of Conduct’
<st.mngbcn.com/web/oi/servicios/rsc/pdf/IN/projects/conducta.pdf> accessed 12 April 2015, 1;
New Look Group, ‘Improving Health and Safety’ (March 2013)
<www.newlookgroup.com/sites/default/files/attachments/wages_working_-
_health_and_safety_nl0913.pdf> accessed 12 April 2015, 3.

still carried out in many factories,41 and that ‘brands themselves admit that they have been
unable to verify that sandblasting has been discontinued in reality’.42
Garment factories illegally dumping industrial waste can lead to the pollution of
rivers, affecting local communities’ access to safe water. Although the right to water and
sanitisation is not explicitly recognised by any international convention, it is clearly necessary
for life and has been recognised as a human right by the UN General Assembly.43 An example
in Bangladesh shows polluted water afflicting local residents with skin diseases.44
2.4. WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Garment factories have a predominantly female workforce,45 due to traditionally gendered
hiring practices in the industry. There appears to be insufficient regard for women’s rights,
especially maternity rights and the right to family life. The UDHR provides for a right start a
family, and a right to special care and assistance to mothers.46 Article 11 of the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) prohibits
discrimination in the workplace on the grounds of pregnancy, maternity leave or marital
status, and requires the provision of maternity leave and special protection from harmful work
during pregnancy.47 NGOs report the presence of pregnancy-based discrimination, including
humiliating treatment, denials of leave and abrupt dismissals.48 They additionally report that
in order to avoid discrimination, pregnant workers would conceal their pregnancies by
41 ‘Sandblasting Still Being Used in Chinese Jean Factories’ Al Jazeera (11 March 2015)
<www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/03/sandblasting-chinese-jean-factories-150311170049076.html>
accessed 1 April 2015.
42 IHLO, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour, Clean Clothes Campaign and War
on Want, ‘Breathless for Blue Jeans: Health Hazards in China’s Denim Factories’ (June 2013)
<www.waronwant.org/attachments/Breathless%20for%20Blue%20Jeans,%202013.pdf> accessed 12
April 2015, 1.
43 UNGA Res 64/292 (3 August 2010) UN Doc A/RES/64/292.
44 Narsingdi, ‘Industrial Waste, Dyeing Chemical Slowly Killing Shitalakhya’ Dhaka Tribune (10 March
2015) <www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2015/mar/10/industrial-waste-dyeing-chemical-slowly-
killing-shitalakhya> accessed 10 March 2015.
46 UDHR (n 17), arts 16, 25.
47 (adopted 18 December 1979, entered into force 3 September 1981) UNGA Res 34/180.
48 War on Want, ‘Stitched Up: Women Working in the Bangladeshi Garment Sector’ (July 2011)
<www.waronwant.org/attachments/Stitched%20Up.pdf> accessed 23 February 2015, 8-9.

wearing tight clothes, and that one worker decided to abort her pregnancy in fear of losing
her job.49 This severely undermines the reproductive freedom of workers and their right to a
family. Besides maternity discrimination, close to a third of workers reported instances of
instances of sexual harassment.50 Disappointingly, national legislation in this area is largely
ineffective; for example, although sexual harassment is prohibited in Cambodian Labour
Law, the relevant provision is brief and does not clearly outline what constitutes harassment.51
The widespread use of child labour is another concern.52 According to Article 32 of
the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,53 children have a right to health, development
and education and thus must not be economically exploited. Further, Article 3 of the Worse
Forms of Child Labour Convention specifically prohibits ‘forced or compulsory labour’ and
work that is ‘likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children’.54 A report indicated that
it was common to hire underage labour in Cambodia, because ‘young women are afraid to
organise a union and don’t have children’.55 Alarmingly India and Bangladesh, the second
and third major Asian garment exporters, 56 have not ratified the Minimum Age
Convention.57
50 ibid 6.
51 Labour Law 1997 (Cambodia), s 7 art 172.
52 Brigitte Hamm, ‘Challenges to Secure Human Rights through Voluntary Standards in the Textile
and Clothing Industry’ in Wesley Cragg (ed), Business and Human Rights (Edward Elgar Publishing 2012)
226.
53 (adopted 20 November 1989, entered into force 2 September 1990) UNGA Res 44/25.
54 ILO, Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst
Forms of Child Labour (adopted 17 June 1999, entered into force 19 November 2000) C182.
55 Jamie Elliott and Mech Dara, ‘Fake IDs Make Mockery of Factory Age Rules’ The Cambodia Daily (21
March 2015) <www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fake-ids-make-mockery-of-factory-age-rules-80492>
accessed 24 March 2015.
56 WTO (n 16).
57 ILO, Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment (adopted 26 June 1973,
entered into force 19 June 1976) C138.

3. Remedial Initiatives by Different Stakeholders
3.1. SOFT LAW OR HARD LAW?
Stakeholders have adopted a wide range of initiatives to address human rights abuses within
the industry, although they have been largely confined to the arena of voluntary soft law
endeavours as opposed to coercive hard law legislation and binding treaties. Indeed, there are
no existing treaties related to the conduct of businesses in relation to human rights; previous
negotiations for binding instruments, such as the UN Code of Conduct on Transnational
Corporations, have all failed.58 In light of the recent adoption of a resolution for an
international treaty on business and human rights at the 26th session of the UN Human Rights
Council (UNHRC),59 it is opportune to explore briefly why soft law initiatives have come to
dominate, and whether they are sufficient to protect human rights.
A shortcoming of hard law is that the drafting process can be particularly arduous.
Liang Xiaohui, a leading expert on business and human rights in China, acknowledges that
legislation tends to be time-consuming.60 Similarly, given the complexity of today’s globalised
world, it ‘may simply be too ambitious’ for a comprehensive binding treaty.61 Moreover, the
binding and inflexible nature of hard law makes it difficult to garner appeal from governments
and businesses alike. John Ruggie, UN Special Representative for Business and Human
Rights, acknowledges that soft law approaches are more flexible and more successful in
eliciting political endorsement,62 and favours a ‘polycentric governance model’ of public, civil
and corporate governance over a ‘state-centric, treaty-driven model’.63 For these reasons, he
urges for a ‘principled form of pragmatism’, that is, a pragmatic but relentless commitment
58 Karl P Sauvant, ‘The Negotiations of the United Nations Code of Conduct on Transnational
Corporations: Experience and Lessons Learned’ (2015) 16 JWIT 12.
59 UNHRC (25 June 2014) Res A/HRC/26/L.22/Rev.1.
60 Interview with Liang Xiaohui, Chief Researcher and Deputy Director at the Office for Social
Responsibility of the CNTAC (London, 16 April 2015).
61 Sauvant (n 58) 77.
62 John Gerard Ruggie, ‘Business and Human Rights: The Evolving International Agenda’ (2007)
101(4) AJIL 819.
63 Radu Mares, ‘Business and Human Rights After Ruggie: Foundations, the Art of Simplification and
the Imperative of Cumulative Progress’, in Radu Mares (ed), The UN Guiding Principles on Business and
Human Rights: Foundations and Implementation (Martinus Nijhoff 2011) 8.

towards human rights protection.64 The European Union holds similar views that a ‘“smart
mix” of regulatory and voluntary policy instruments is a pragmatic approach’.65 It matters not
whether initiatives are soft law or hard law as long as they are effective for their intended
purpose, since voluntary instruments ‘can be strengthened over time’, and that ‘standards
agreed to at the international level, even if voluntary, can become hard law in a national
context’.66 Soft law multi-stakeholder initiatives can also form a guide for future legislations.67
For the remainder of this section, I seek to set out the current state of governance
within the industry through a sample of initiatives. Apart from the implementation of
legislation by the state, other initiatives may include soft law standard-setting and direct
company engagement by intergovernmental organisations, and self-regulation by the firms
themselves.68
3.2. AT THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
Governments have sought to curb human rights violations within garment factories through
national legislation, but they are only moderately successful due to uneven enforcement.69
Bangladesh revised its labour laws following the collapse of Rana Plaza, adding new
provisions on collective bargaining, workplace health and safety and corporate liability.70
Nonetheless, the amendment has been criticised as falling short of international standards.71
Amidst growing labour unrest, the 2007 amendment of the Chinese Labour Contract Law
strengthened workers’ rights by requiring all employment to be substantiated by written
64 UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), ‘Interim Report of the Special Representative of the
Secretary-General on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business
Enterprises’ (22 February 2006) E/CN.4/2006/97, para 81.
65 European Union, ‘EU Comments on the Draft Guiding Principles for the Implementation of the UN
‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework’ D(2011) 702 246
<ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sustainable-business/files/business-human-
rights/eu_statement_final_en.pdf>.
66 Sauvant (n 58) 80.
67 Liang (n 60).
68 Ruggie (n 62) 834-835.
69 Human Rights Watch (n 20) 34-35; Lane and Probert (n 10) 262.
70 Labour (Amendment) Act 2013 (Bangladesh).
71 ILO, ‘ILO Statement on Reform of Bangladesh Labour Law’ (22 July 2013)
<www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/media-centre/statements-and-speeches/WCMS_218067/lang--
en/index.htm> accessed 12 April 2015.

contracts and the provision of severance payments,72 although it has encouraged employers to
circumvent regulations by hiring dispatched workers through employment agencies.73
There have also been efforts by the legislatures of sourcing countries to ensure human
rights protection. The new Modern Slavery Act 2015 in the United Kingdom (UK) contains
provisions for transparency in supply chains, and requires companies to report on slavery and
human trafficking in their supply chain every year.74 This is modelled on the earlier learning
form the earlier California Transparency in Supply Chains Act 2010, which requires
Californian companies falling under a certain criteria to do the same. However, the UK Act
may provide a loophole for companies who own subsidiaries overseas, such as sourcing firms,
as they are not required to report on the supply chains of such subsidiaries. Nonetheless, it is
hoped that the new Act will bring about better protection in the fast fashion industry in Asia.
International soft law frameworks and guidelines have been successful tools in
encouraging discussion and collaboration between stakeholders, and the voluntary
implementation of ethical and sustainable business practices. The UN Global Compact is a
voluntary multi-stakeholder initiative promoting human rights and labour standards,75 with
participants including ASOS, GAP, H&M, Mango and Inditex. The 2011 UN Guiding
Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP), based on Ruggie’s “Protect, Respect and
Remedy” framework, further requires both states and businesses to protect human rights and
for businesses to carry out ‘human rights due diligence’.76 These have influenced efforts by
other organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD),77 and the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO).78 The ILO’s
72 Labor Contract Law (中华人民共和国劳动合同法) 2007 (People’s Republic of China), arts 10, 50.
73 Tu Lan and John Pickles, ‘China’s New Labour Contract Law: State Regulation and Worker Rights
in Global Production Networks’ (Capturing the Gains 2011) 14-15.
74 Modern Slavery Act 2015, art 54.
75 UN Global Compact, ‘The Ten Principles’
<www.unglobalcompact.org/AboutTheGC/TheTenPrinciples/index.html> accessed 12 April 2015.
76 UN, ‘Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights’ (2011) HR/PUB/11/04.
77 OECD, ‘Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises’ (1976)
<www.oecd.org/investment/investment-
policy/oecddeclarationoninternationalinvestmentandmultinationalenterprises.htm> accessed 6 April
2015.
78 ISO, ‘ISO 26000 Guidance on Social Responsibility’ (2010).

Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, although not legally binding on
members, affirms that they have a constitutional obligation to respect certain fundamental
rights.79
3.3. COMPANIES AND INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS
Whether of their own volition or in response to public criticism, many fast fashion retailers
have tried to address human rights issues by implementing codes of conducts, factory audits
and other initiatives for supplier factories. Unfortunately, efforts at factory-level are not always
well publicised in garment-producing countries such as China, because of reputational
concerns and lack of interest from the press.80 The initiatives may also suggest that retailers
are employing double standards, because the “lean” practices central to their business model
contradict with the high labour standards that they are endorsing. Nonetheless, last year eight
retailers including H&M, Inditex and Primark agreed to raise the minimum wage in
Cambodia following protests.81
The effectiveness of voluntary initiatives varies, because of ‘underdeveloped
accountability mechanisms’.82 Factory audits in particular tend to have “limited credibility”,83
and many retailers themselves admit that their audits are inadequate.84 Reports reveal that
during audits, factory managers would frequently conceal actual labour conditions by hiding
child workers and bribing workers to provide positive comments to auditors.85 Andrew Brooks
notes that sourcing firm Li & Fung Group has introduced a new system to digitally monitor
each worker’s output, supposedly to allow workers to be rewarded for extra productivity,
79 International Labour Conference (86th Session) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights
at Work (Geneva 18 June 1998).
80 Liang (n 60).
81 Miles Brignall, ‘Fashion Retailers Agree to Raise Minimum Wage in Cambodia’ The Guardian
(London, 21 September 2014) <www.theguardian.com/business/2014/sep/21/fashion-retailers-offer-
raise-minimum-wage-cambodia> accessed 12 April 2015.
82 Ruggie (n 62) 836.
83 ibid 837.
84 War on Want (n 20) 8.
85 Human Rights Watch (n 20) 17, 109.

although he expressed doubts about whether the system would benefit workers, as it may
enable managers to further exploit workers.86
Growing awareness of ethical practices and high-profile incidents within the industry
have led to increased cooperation with civil society and the establishment of various
agreements and coalitions. For instance, the collapse of Rana Plaza led to the creation of the
Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, an agreement between trade unions,
NGOs and retailers. The Accord carries out regular inspections in factories and instructs
them to rectify any gaps in safety practices. Another similar coalition, the Alliance for
Bangladesh Worker Safety, has claimed transformational improvements in safety conditions.87
The United Kingdom’s Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) also has projects focusing on the
garment sector in Bangladesh and India.88
Although initiatives by leading retailers encourage other companies to follow suit,
smaller retailers and factories are less likely to adopt similar mechanisms because they have
fewer reputational risks. In this case, industry associations are more likely to influence the
behaviour of such firms, although there are still doubts regarding effective enforcement. The
Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association (MGMA), with over 300 members, recently
published their first ever code of conduct in January, a tremendous milestone for workers’
rights.89 The China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) and local NGO Social
86 Brooks (n 7) 249-250.
87 Cole Stangler, ‘Bangladesh Garment Factories: Alliance For Bangladesh Worker Safety Report
Claims 'Transformation' In Working Conditions’ International Business Times (10 March 2015)
<www.ibtimes.com/bangladesh-garment-factories-alliance-bangladesh-worker-safety-report-claims-
1842774> accessed 11 March 2015.
88 ETI, ‘Garments from Bangladesh’ (February 2012) <www.ethicaltrade.org/in-
action/programmes/garments-bangladesh> accessed 6 March 2015; ‘Garments and textiles, India’ (1
March 2013) <www.ethicaltrade.org/in-action/programmes/garments-and-textiles-india> accessed 6
March 2015.
89 MGMA, ‘Code of Conduct for the Member Companies of the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers
Association’ <www.myanmargarments.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/MGMA-Code-of-Conduct-
Ratified-Jan.-2015.pdf> accessed 9 February 2015.

Resources Institute have co-published several reports on the use of grievance mechanisms in
factories and their recommendations for effective practices based on the UNGP.90
3.4. CIVIL SOCIETY AND CONSUMERS
The role of civil society organisations in campaigning for better protection of human rights
and raising consumer and shareholder awareness about ethical fashion is not to be
understated. Field research and investigative reports by NGOs such as the China Labor
Watch, Clean Clothes Campaign and Labour Behind the Label have exposed labour
conditions in factories and encouraged retailers to take responsibility for their supply chains.
For example, following a recent NGO report on poor conditions in factories producing for
UNIQLO,91 the brand immediately announced that it would improve conditions and
introduce a new grievance hotline for workers.92 They have also influenced consumer activism
through protests and encouragement of brand boycotts. Other NGOs such as the Institute for
Business and Human Rights and the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre play a
critical role in providing the public with information about violations within the industry, and
bringing retailers to account by seeking direct company responses.93
As a result of endeavours by a wide range of stakeholders, a conscious segment of
consumers are now beginning to re-evaluate their consumption patterns and turn to more
90 CNTAC and Social Resources Institute, ‘申诉机制在中国--企业内申诉机制项目成果汇编
(Grievance Mechanisms in China – Outcome Pamphlet)’ (2013)
<www.csrglobal.cn/upload/image/306064.pdf> accessed 19 December 2014.
91 Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour, ‘Investigative Report on the Working
Conditions in UNIQLO’s China Suppliers’ (January 2015) <sacom.hk/wp-
content/uploads/2015/01/2014-UNIQLO-Investigative-Report_final_20150109.pdf> accessed 21
January 2015.
92 Fast Retailing Co Ltd, ‘Fast Retailing Takes Action to Improve Working Conditions at its
Production Partners in China’ (15 January 2015)
<www.fastretailing.com/eng/csr/news/1501150900.html> accessed 21 January 2015.
93 Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, ‘Response by H&M: Myanmar Foreign Investment
Tracking Project’ (13 March 2015) <business-
humanrights.org/sites/default/files/documents/Myanmar%20information%20to%20Business%20an
d%20Human%20Rights%20Resource%20Centre%20Final_13_March.pdf> accessed 16 March
2015; ‘Response by Primark: Myanmar Foreign Investment Tracking Project’ (27 March 2015)
<business-humanrights.org/sites/default/files/documents/Primark_BHRRC_Myanmar.pdf>
accessed 30 March 2015.

ethical retailers and vintage fashion.94 The emergence of fashion shows such as the
Copenhagen Fashion Summit and the Ethical Fashion Show in Berlin demonstrates a
growing level of consumer interest for sustainable fashion. As consumers influence market
demand, increased general awareness of ethical fashion would provide the ultimate incentive
for firms to improve their practices.
94 Brooks (n 7) 190-192.

4. Moving Beyond the Human Rights Discourse
4.1 INTRODUCTION
Emphasis on human rights discourse when discussing poor labour conditions within factories
leads to other socioeconomic causes being overlooked. Liang remarks that human rights
discourse merely reflects the facts of the industry, and that it would be more constructive to
focus on structural factors such as trade, the supply chain and governance.95 Through an
analysis of neoliberal capitalism, consumerism and developmentalism, I explore how they
created a ‘governance gap’ and contributed to human rights violations within the fast fashion
industry.
4.2. THE RISE OF NEOLIBERALISM
The first part of this section concentrates on the rise of neoliberalism, a body of continually
evolving laissez-faire economic ideology disseminated through three concurrent methods:
‘regulatory experimentation’, ‘inter-jurisdictional policy transfer’ and ‘formation of
transnational rule-regimes’. 96 Discussion of neoliberalism will necessitate mention of
globalisation, which I understand to be resulting overarching framework that covers trade,
political economy, culture and every fabric of social life. It is undeniable that the proliferation
of neoliberal economic policies by intergovernmental organisations and trade agreements
since the 1970s has led to gradual trade liberalisation. As newly industrialised states in Asia
began focusing on cheap and labour-intensive manufactured exports, this gave the fashion
industry in the Global North access to cheaper means of production, which in turn
encouraged the growth of a section of retailers in the 1990s that became today’s fast fashion
industry.
95 Liang (n 60).
96 Neil Brenner, Jamie Peck and Nik Theodore, ‘After Neoliberalization?’ [2010] 7(3) Globalizations 329.

Neoliberalism has led to the commodification of all aspects of social life,97 such that
for many social problems, even those related to welfare such as housing and education, the
oft-quipped maxim is now ‘let the market decide’. To cite an example: this is increasingly
apparent within educational institutions, including the author’s, where the traditionally
pastoral and nurturing relationship between tutor and student is now more aligned to that of a
service provider and customer; tutors have strict protocol on proper conduct with students,
and institutions seek to maximise profits by expanding and adding more courses. Karl Polanyi
poignantly described this process as ‘disembedding’ the economy from society, such that
man’s labour becomes removed from social relations and becomes an artificial object of
exchange for economic ends.98
Of course, the commodification of social life extends to human rights. Third World
Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) scholars such as Antony Anghie argue that
globalisation challenges human rights,99 and Upendra Baxi further argues that ‘the paradigm
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being steadily … supplanted by that of a
trade-related, market-friendly, human rights’.100 According to Anghie and others, the World
Bank and other international financial institutions have used a distinctive narrative to
promote neoliberal policies in developing countries, to the detriment of social equality and
human rights. These institutions propose that economic development by neoliberal
governance is a necessary precondition for human rights. Accordingly, market liberalisation
and the removal of trade barriers have encouraged the industrialisation of the garment-
exporting sector, but also led to increased inequality.101 Notwithstanding the tremendous scale
and power of these institutions, they never questioned the global structural factors, such as
North-South dependency relationships, that necessitated structural adjustments in the first
97 ibid 330.
98 Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation (Beacon 2001) 79.
99 Antony Anghie, ‘Time Present and Time Past: Globalization, International Finance Institutions, and
the Third World’ [1999-2000] 32 NYU J Int 248.
100 Upendra Baxi, The Future of Human Rights (OUP 2002) 132.
101 Anghie (n 99) 252-253.

place.102 They have further appropriated and distorted human rights discourse to articulate a
‘right to development’, undermining other human rights as traditionally understood.103
Thus, there is an officiated but fallacious belief, partly owing to misquoted Smithian
theory, that the market is capable of addressing social problems and that the state need not
intervene. In a climate of liberalised and unrestrained capitalism then, the quest for profit
maximisation has led to exploitative and socially irresponsible practices, exacerbated by the
fast fashion retailers’ ability to relocate production from one country to another. In order to
minimise costs and shorten lead times, retailers will continually relocate production to
countries whose lower wages and flexibility necessitate poor enforcement of human rights.104
Despite legislation and voluntary standards taken by retailers, they may not be sufficient to
curb abuses in the supply chain because globalisation has influenced the growth of the
informal economy, which weakens the effectiveness of such initiatives.105
Zygmunt Bauman suggests that governments have an interest in acting as ‘weak
states’ that allow the exploitation of abundant labour.106 Due to its low-skilled nature, many
developing countries perceive the clothing industry as ‘main source of growth in
manufacturing output that can be sold in the world market’.107 With increasing competition
among garment-exporting countries,108 this leads to a ‘race to the bottom’ for rights protection
and corruption.109 This is apparent in China, where government officials are now ‘assessed on
their ability to attract and retain FDI’.110 Additionally, the Cambodian Ministry of Labour
and Vocational Training fined just 10 factories for violating labour regulations between 2009
102 Frances Stewart, Adjustment and Poverty: Options and Choices (Routledge 1995) 213.
103 Anghie (n 99) 253.
104 Lan and Pickles (n 104) 4.
105 Hamm (n 52) 222.
106 Zygmunt Bauman, Globalization: The Human Consequences (Polity Press 1998) 67.
107 Rudolf Traub-Merz, ‘The African Textile and Clothing Industry: From Import Substitution to
Export Orientation’, in Herbert Jauch and Rudolf Traub-Merz (eds), The Future of the Textile and Clothing
Industry in Sub-Saharan Africa (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung 2006) 11.
109 ibid 256-257.
110 Mary Elizabeth Gallagher, Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the Politics of Labour in China
(Princeton University Press 2005) 2.

to 2013, despite admitting that at least 295 factories had violated regulations in 2013 alone.111
Hence, it can be argued that rights legislation in garment-exporting countries has only been
tokenistic at best, given its poor enforcement.
4.3. CONSUMERISM AND CONSUMER POLITICS
Intrinsically linked to the current form of capitalism permeating through society are the
phenomena of consumerism and commodity fetishism. The production and consumption of
goods and services are vectors of economic growth. Consumption of all differentiated goods,
including fashion, is also a process of individual expression and identity formation.112
According to postmodern scholar Jean Baudrillard, the nature and quality of goods contain
symbolic value, and consumption indicates one’s social class.113 Hence, the social logic of
consumption is not only to satisfy a personal need, but also to voluntarily ascribe oneself to
particular class distinctions.114 Economic growth and rising living standards in the Global
North have led to the growth of the fashion industry, which has capitalised on the demand for
fashion to push out more and more items. Discerning the fragmentation of the market, a
group of fast fashion retailers emerged, focusing on selling cheap clothing with high fashion
content to young people.115 All this is indicative of an intensified stratification of social class,
the distinctions of which are becoming infinitesimally finer. Therefore, in the Global North,
the rise of consumerism and the search for ‘personal identity’ have indirectly led to the
hardships of garment factory workers in the Global South.
The above alludes to Karl Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism, in which the social
relations in an exchange are obscured by the supposedly innate qualities of the
commodities.116 When buying clothes, a young person correlates price with the clothing’s
ability add style or individualism to his appearance, without realising the labour involved in
112 Taplin (n 1) 248.
113 Jean Baudrillard, The Consumer Society (Chris Turner tr, Sage 1998) 59.
114 ibid 62.
115 Taplin (n 1) 248.
116 Karl Marx, Capital: Volume One (Ben Fowkes tr, Penguin Books 1976) 165-166.

creating its use-value and transporting it to the shop front. However, this is not to say that
consumers are wholly at fault for unknowingly perpetuating a system that undermines human
rights. Given the complexity and obscurity of global supply chains, consumers cannot be
expected to undertake ‘human rights due diligence’ before making every purchase. Firstly, it
would simply be far too burdensome, and secondly, it would be setting an unqualified
normative standard for consumer responsibility. Moreover, advertising and branding by
retailers may exert considerable influence on consumer behaviour.117
Even in the case of conscious consumption, brand boycotts are not entirely effective.
The economist Ben Fine succinctly posits the limits of consumer politics: it obscures particular
interests as general, when there are actually many stakeholders involved.118 In the case of fast
fashion, a conscious consumer may boycott a certain retailer for unethical sourcing, but in the
process of doing so he is also campaigning against the manufacturer, who is exploiting
workers in order to meet the demand of the retailer, and governments, who poorly enforce
legislation on exploitative labour practices. These social issues have structural causes that
boycotts cannot adequately address, and thus the market is not an effective arena for activism.
To achieve change, then, consumers need to move beyond the high streets and collaborate
with other stakeholders in society.
For instance, in the 1990s Nike went under constant public scrutiny over human
rights abuses in its global supply chain.119 Nike’s reputation was severely tarnished by the
combined force of consumer boycotts, civil society protests and heavy backlash from the press,
and its then-CEO publicly admitted that the brand had ‘synonymous with slave wages, forced
overtime and arbitrary abuse’.120 In response, Nike began to proactively reform its practices,
117 Naomi Klein, No Logo (Flamingo 2000) 68.
118 Ben Fine, ‘Consumption Matters’ [2013] 13(2) Ephemera 239.
119 Radu Mares, The Dynamics of Corporate Social Responsibility (Martinus Nijhoff 2008) 109.
120 David Vogel, The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility (Brookings
Institution Press) 80.

and today it is widely viewed as a leader in CSR.121 Hence, ‘to engage in progressive political
action, consumer citizens need to escape neither consumption nor the market’.122
Using Fine’s model of ‘systems of provision’, 123 the fast fashion industry may be
understood through an aggregate of factors, including design, production, advertising,
marketing and consumer culture. Two important areas to consider are Wolfgang Fritz Haug’s
‘aesthetic illusion’,124 the gap between the actual use-value of clothing and its perceived use-
value, and ‘historical contingency’,125 the social and cultural developments in consumption.
Considering the above, fast fashion retailers have engineered an intricate system of provision
that encourages a culture of habitual shopping by incessantly pushing out new inexpensive
items, and making older items appear obsolete through advertising and marketing techniques.
Roland Barthes remarked that ‘calculating, industrial society is obliged to form consumers
who don’t calculate; if clothing’s producers and consumers had the same consciousness,
clothing would be bought (and produced) only at the very slow rate of its dilapidation’.126
Thus, retailers too are responsible for perpetuating a system conducive to human rights
violations.
4.4. THE DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE
In light of scholarship by “structuralist” development economists, the effects of colonialism are
worthy of mention. Resource colonialism in garment-exporting countries, including
Bangladesh, Cambodia and India left behind deliberately underdeveloped social and political
structures that placed them on a certain developmental trajectory. In colonial India, the
British used extortionate taxation to force subsistence farmers to specialise in cash crops such
121 ibid 82.
122 Eric Arnould, ‘Should Consumer Citizens Escape the Market?’ [2007] 611 Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science 108.
123 Ben Fine, The World of Consumption: The Material and the Cultural Revisited (2nd edn, Routledge 2002) 79.
124 ibid 88.
125 ibid 98.
126 Roland Barthes, The Fashion System (Matthew Ward and Richard Howard tr, University of California
Press 1992) xi.

as indigo, cotton and wheat for export in order to support the British Industrial Revolution.127
At the same time, the British dismantled a thriving local textile industry in order to protect the
fledging textile industry at home, which could not yet compete with the Indian.128
Throughout the colonial era, the British repatriated large amounts of money collected from
taxes and cash crop sales, and only invested a meagre amount in education, infrastructure and
technology.129 To consolidate their rule, the British created a class of local elite with vested
interests that contributed to growing political tensions.130 A combination of similar factors set
India and other former colonies on staggered developmental paths upon independence.
The Prebisch-Singer dependency theory provides a possible explanation for the
growth of the low-skilled garment-exporting industries in Asia. According to the theory,
underdeveloped “periphery” states provide cheap unprocessed resources and labour to
wealthy and industrialised “core” states, while importing more expensive manufactured
commodities from the same. 131 Then, using their economic and political influence, the core
states perpetuate the dependency relationship in order to continue reaping economic
benefits.132 Under the neoliberal policies propagated by core states through international
trade agreements since the 1970s, India and other peripheries began exporting garments to
the United Kingdom, United States and other cores. Due to structural differences between
the cores and peripheries, the peripheries are forced to continue exporting cheap low value-
added goods, and hence the modern world system of international division of labour is
formed. To the peripheries’ lament, technological improvements do not improve their terms
of trade, because they only lead to garment prices falling, which means that even more pieces
have to be exported in order to purchase the same amount of manufactured goods from the
core states. Other structuralist economists such as Andre Gunder Frank, Terence Hopkins
127 James M Cypher and James L Dietz, The Process of Economic Development (3rd edn, Routledge 2009) 81.
128 Hamza Alavi, ‘India: The Transition to Colonial Capitalism’ in Hamza Alavi et al (eds), Capitalism
and Colonial Production (Croom Helm 1982) 56.
129 Cypher and Dietz (n 127) 85.
130 Jawaharal Nehru, The Discovery of India (Doubleday-Anchor 1960) 304.
131 Cypher and Dietz (n 127) 175-176.
132 ibid.

and Immanuel Wallerstein have made similar arguments.133 As a type of neo-colonialism, the
persistence of this state of affairs has led to global inequality.
133 Andre Gunder Frank, Latin America: Underdevelopment or Revolution: Essays on the Development of
Underdevelopment and the Immediate Enemy (Monthly Press Review 1969) 6-7; Terence Hopkins, Immanuel
Wallerstein et al, ‘Patterns of Development of the Modern World System’ in Terence Hopkins and
Immanuel Wallerstein (eds), World-Systems Analysis: Theory and Methodology (Sage 1982) 44-45.

5. Conclusion
5.1 CLOSING REMARKS
The human rights impacts of the fast fashion industry do not simply arise from failures in
compliance by governments, retailers and factories. There are deeper socioeconomic causes,
attributable to prevailing neoliberal economic thought, the structure of the world system, the
role played by intergovernmental organisations and the rise of consumerism in the Global
North. Brand boycotts alone are not sufficient to address these systemic problems.
As all retailers are ultimately accountable to their shareholders, there is indisputably a
need to increase the awareness of ethical investing among shareholders. Without denying that
profit maximisation is the primary objective for companies and shareholders, is it really
necessary maximise profits to the extent of inhumane exploitation? Notwithstanding the
countless human rights violations suffered, it has been reported that the majority of garment
workers earn less than US$2 a day, which represents less than 2% of the retail price of the
final product.134 Sustainable investment has become a widely contested topic in recent years,
and this sentiment must be extended to the fast fashion industry. Shareholders of the industry
must vocalise their desire for better practices within the supply chain.
Throughout the essay, I have omitted a discussion global justice. Extensive discussion
of what constitutes justice is beyond the scope of this paper, but in any discussion of global
justice, there is a need for sensitivity to local conditions and respect towards cultural pluralism
above all in order to avoid marginalising the other.135 In the context of developmentalism, a
constructive way to reconcile differences would be to adapt a post-structuralist view of
minimising violence to others.136 Hence it is important to reiterate that for the sake of
discussion I have approached the human rights discourse from a Western liberal perspective,
which stresses individual liberty. This may not be compatible with the version of human rights
134 Hamm (n 52) 224.
135 Andrew Robinson and Simon Tormey, ‘Resisting ‘Global Justice’: disrupting the colonial
‘emancipatory’ logic of the West’ [2009] 30(8) Third World Quarterly 1407.
136 Trevor Parfitt, ‘Towards a Post-Structuralist Development Ethics? Alterity or the same?’ [2010]
31(5) Third World Quarterly 689.

practiced in host countries. For example, China’s official stance on human rights post-
Cultural Revolution has consistently focused on the collective interests of economic
development and ‘common prosperity’,137 as opposed to individual interests of civil liberty.
This is reflected in contemporary Chinese jurisprudence scholarship, which stresses that
individual rights are ‘for the purpose of benefiting the collective’.138 Human rights scholar
Jack Donnelly describes this as a temporary suspension of human rights in the interest of
development.139 Although this hegemonic stance conflicts with individual liberty, literature
suggests that overall living standards have increased, so a collective conception of human
rights cannot be immediately dismissed.140
137 Ronald C Keith and Lin Zhiqiu, Law and Justice in China’s New Marketplace (Palgrave 2001) 50.
138 Albert HY Chen, ‘Developing Theories of Rights and Human Rights in China’, in Raymond Wacks
(ed), Hong Kong, China and 1997: Essays in Legal Theory (University of Hong Kong Press 1993) 123-149.
139 Keith and Lin (n 120) 51.
140 UN Development Programme, ‘Human Development Report’ (2014) 35-36.

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