Francesco Zecchin

The essay addresses the issue of custodian or child services liability for damages to children in foster care and to their parents. Since there are no specific rules, the problem must be dealt with the general ones, but taking into consideration that such a question arises into the family law context. The author proposes to look at contractual liability rather than tort law on the grounds that parties involved in the foster care are linked by a specific legal relation. Children and their parents, in other words, have a legitimate expectation that custodians, child services, and to some extent judicial authority too, will be able to prevent them from suffering harm...

The essay deals with the problem of social sustainability into the international supply chains, especially from the workers’ human rights point of view. After showing the potential offered by the private law in this field, as it seems proved by some soft law instruments, the author analyses the recent French and German legislations, which provide a so-called human rights (and environmental) due diligence obligation for the company leaders of an international supply chain...