Rule-of-law backsliding, sustainability rollback and international business in the Trump era

Abstract

Purpose – This viewpoint paper examines how the return of the Trump administration is reshaping international business, sustainability governance and global institutions. Organised as a structured bricolage of three interrelated viewpoints, it analyses how rule-of-law backsliding, sustainability rollback and business-and-human-rights reconfiguration challenge responsible business and sustainable development frameworks. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a conceptual and qualitative approach, combining policy and document analysis with critical perspectives from international business, international political economy and political science. It synthesises three viewpoints on EU sustainability rollback, neoliberal capitalism and the politicisation of business and human rights. Findings – Recent political shifts contribute to the rollback and contestation of sustainability and human-rights governance. Across the three viewpoints, rollback through politicisation emerges as a common mechanism: sustainability regulation, Environmental, Social and Governance, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, due diligence and human rights are weakened by being reframed as anti-competitive, ideological, sovereignty-threatening or hostile to national economic interests. Research limitations/implications – Future research should examine how firms, states, business associations and civil society actors weaken, contest or defend sustainability and human-rights governance, including beyond the US–EU axis. Practical implications – Managers and policymakers need resilient governance, due-diligence and political-risk systems for fragmented sustainability and human-rights regimes. Social implications – Rollback may weaken climate, labour-rights and social-equity efforts, with consequences for suppliers, workers and communities embedded in global value chain. Originality/value – The paper contributes to international business scholarship by linking geopolitical shifts, regulatory change, corporate strategy, neoliberal political economy and business-and-human-rights governance. It shows that the Trump II era is not merely a period of policy reversal or heightened political risk, but a deeper destabilisation of the legal, institutional and normative conditions on which responsible international business depends.