The difficult journey of the French Bill on the duty of care of parent and subcontracting companies came to an end on 23 March 2017, when the French Constitutional Council [...] decided in favour of upholding the majority of the law’s text... This piece looks at how this French law fits into the growing trend to embed corporate respect for human rights into different types of legal requirements... [It] reflects on the Council ruling and a potential political shift that this decision reveals... Should the new French government maintain this leading role in Europe and at the international level, and should other states and the European Commission seize this opportunity, the duty of care law could have a similar knock-on effect and steer towards wider convergence.