Corporate Climate Transition Accountability in International Law: Legalisation, Climate Justice and the Asian Global Value-Chain Perspective

This article examines whether the legalisation of corporate climate transition accountability advances climate justice, particularly for developing Asian economies embedded in global value chains. It uses doctrinal, comparative and normative analysis to trace four regulatory pathways: climate disclosure, due diligence, transition planning and access to remedy. The article argues that the movement from soft-law standards to hard-law duties is neither linear nor sufficient. International instruments have supplied a common vocabulary of responsibility, due diligence and transition planning, yet their translation into EU, US and Asian frameworks remains fragmented and politically unstable. The article concludes that climate justice will not be secured by soft law alone, nor by rigid extraterritorial hard law that shifts compliance costs to suppliers and developing host States. A just model requires a hard-law floor - enforceable disclosure, climate due diligence, stakeholder participation and remedies - supported by soft-law technical standards, capacity building and climate finance. Its originality lies in reframing corporate climate transition accountability from an investor-centred disclosure project into a rights-holder-centred accountability framework.