The Responsible Contracting Project

RCP’s mission is to drive better outcomes for people and the planet through better, more responsible contracts. We develop practical contractual tools that promote shared responsibility for human rights and the environment in global supply chains.

About us

Learn more about RCP and what we do

The Toolkit

See all of RCPs open source tools and how you can use them

Core Principles

Learn more about the core principles of responsible contracting

The Latest News

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Our interdisciplinary team of experts works hand in hand with various stakeholders—businesses, industry associations, investors, policymakers, civil society organizations, and transparency initiatives—to socialize our Responsible Contracting Toolkit (“the RCP Toolkit”) and facilitate the integration of its three core principles into supply chain contracting practices and processes.

The RCP Toolkit advances a major shift in contract design to align more closely with the principles of human rights due diligence (HRDD) enshrined in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct (OECD Guidance). The Toolkit, along with our guidance on its implementation, is made freely available here.

With human rights and labor practices coming under increasing regulatory scrutiny, particularly in the E.U. and the U.S., new tools are needed to effectively prevent and address adverse human rights impacts in global supply chains. The responsible contracting approach, which promotes shared responsibility principles, focuses on improving the role of contracts in this process.

Background and History

RCP was co-founded in 2022 by Sarah Dadush and Olivia Windham Stewart, leading members of the American Bar Association Business Law Section Working Group to Draft Model Contract Clauses to Protect Human Rights in International Supply Chains (the ABA Working Group). The ABA Working Group published the Model Contract Clauses 2.0 (the MCCs 2.0) and the Responsible Purchasing Code of Conduct (the Buyer Code) in the Spring of 2021. Since then, the RCP team has been working to develop and support the uptake of new responsible contracting tools in line with our core principles.

Our work is made possible thanks to the generous support provided by the Laudes Foundation, Open Society Foundations, GIZ, and our pro bono counsels, Allens, Goodwin Procter, and Linklaters.

RCP is housed within Rutgers Law School’s Center for Corporate Law and Governance .