John Ruggie

John G. Ruggie is the Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, Affiliated Professor in International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, and Faculty Chair of the Corporate Responsibility Initiative. Trained as a political scientist, Ruggie has made significant intellectual contributions to the study of international relations, focusing on the impact of globalization on global rule making. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, he has received the International Studies Association's “Distinguished Scholar” award, the American Political Science Association's Hubert Humphrey award for “outstanding public service by a political scientist,” a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Harry LeRoy Jones Award from the Washington Foreign Law Society for “an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the development and application of international law;” the World Order Under Law Award from the American Bar Association and, most recently, the Angela and Shu Kai Chan award given every two years by the BZB Berlin Social Science Center, “honoring researchers from the social sciences who have made an important contribution to political and economic reforms.” He has been awarded honory doctorate degrees from McMaster University and the University of Waterloo, both in Canada. A survey published in Foreign Policy magazine identified him as one of the 25 most influential international relations scholars in the United States and Canada.

Apart from his academic pursuits, Ruggie has long been involved in practical policy work, initially as a consultant to various agencies of the United Nations and the United States government. From 1997-2001 he was United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Planning – a post created specifically for him by then Secretary-General Kofi Annan. His responsibilities included establishing and overseeing the UN Global Compact, now the world's largest corporate citizenship initiative; proposing and gaining General Assembly approval for the Millennium Development Goals; advising Annan on relations with Washington; and broadly contributing to the effort at institutional renewal for which Annan and the United Nations as a whole were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. From 2005-2011 Ruggie served as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Business and Human Rights. His mandate was to propose measures to strengthen the human rights performance of the business sector around the world. The final product of his mandate, developed through nearly 50 international consultations, extensive research and pilot projects, was the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, endorsed unanimously by the UN Human Rights Council. In the words of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, they constitute “the global authoritative standard, providing a blueprint for the steps all states and businesses should take to uphold human rights.”

Professor Ruggie chairs the board the New York-based non-profit Shift: Putting Principles into Practice. He also advises governments, companies and civil society organizations on the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles. Most recently, he was tasked by FIFA, the governing body of international football, to align its policies and practices with the Guiding Principles. His latest book, entitled Just Business: Multinational Corporations and Human Rights, has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.

Selected Publications

Academic Journal/Scholarly Articles

• Ruggie, John Gerard, and John F. Sherman III. "The Concept of ‘Due Diligence’ in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: A Reply to Jonathan Bonnitcha and Robert McCorquodale." European Journal of International Law 28.3 (November 2017): 921-928.
• Ruggie, John Gerard. "Multinationals as Global Institution: Power, Authority and Relative Autonomy." Regulation & Governance (June 2017).
• Ruggie, John Gerard. "The Concept of ‘Due Diligence’ in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Reply to Professors Bonnitcha and Mccorquodale." Journal of International Dispute Settlement (March 15, 2017).
• Ruggie, John Gerard. "Adding Human Rights Punch to the New Lex Mercatoria: The Impact of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights on Commercial Legal Practice." European Journal of of International Law 6.3 (October 13, 2015): 455-461.
• Ruggie, John Gerard. "Global Governance and ‘New Governance Theory’: Lessons from Business and Human Rights." Global Governance 20.1 (January-March 2014): 5-17.

Book Chapters

• Ruggie, John Gerard. "Hierachy or Ecosystem? Regulating Human Rights Risks of Multinational Enterprises." Business and Human Rights: Beyond the End of the Beginning (Globalization and Human Rights). Ed. César Rodríguez-Garavito. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
• Ruggie, John Gerard. "Constitutionalization and the Regulation of Transnational Firms." Multinationals and the Constitutionalization of the World-Power System. Ed. Jean-Philippe Robé, Antoine Lyon-Caen, and Stéphane Vernac. Taylor & Francis, 2016.
• Ruggie, John Gerard. "Incorporating Human Rights: Lessons Learned, and Next Steps." Business and Human Rights: From Principles to Practice. Ed. Baumann-Pauly, Dorothee, and Justine Nolan. Routhledge, 2016.

HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series

Ruggie, John Gerard. "The Social Construction of the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP17-030, June 12, 2017.

Outside Professional Activities

Transparent Engagement

Harvard Kennedy School is proud of its energetic involvement in the world. To better understand how to solve public problems by improving policy and leadership, we engage directly with policymakers, public leaders, governments, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit businesses whose activities affect those problems. However, we recognize that such engagement can raise questions about perceived and potential conflicts of interest, so we disclose publicly the key professional activities of our faculty outside the Kennedy School.

Outside Professional Activities For John Ruggie

1. Board Chair of Shift: Putting Principles into Practice, a New York-based nonprofit that works with governments, companies, NGOs and international institutions to align policies and practices with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which I developed in my capacity as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative for Business and Human Rights (http://www.shiftproject.org/).

2. Corporate Social Responsibility Board, Barrick Gold Corp.(http://www.barrick.com/).