Transnational Sustainability Laws

Transnational Sustainability Laws
Author: Phillip Paiement
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2017-11-23
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1108284825

Transnational standards related to the environmental and social sustainability of production processes are becoming commonplace governance tools in the global economy. This book demonstrates how sustainability standards serve two fundamentally different functions: coordination and regulation. Standards can coordinate like-minded businesses in an industry by demarcating common sustainability commitments to distinguish between sustainable and unsustainable sectors of the industry. Yet, standards can also regulate businesses, requiring them to change production and trade practices to align with the sustainability demands of third-parties, including trading partners, advocacy groups, consumers and other civil society constituencies. These two functions reflect the private and public lenses, respectively, through which legal scholars can assess standards as transnational sustainability laws. With key case studies in forestry standards, palm oil standards, and the ISEAL Alliance, this book demonstrates how socio-legal analyses of transnational rulemaking inform debates about global administrative law and the constitutionalization of the global economy.

Transnational Business Governance Interactions

Transnational Business Governance Interactions
Author: Stepan Wood
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2019-12-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1788114736

From agriculture to sport and from climate change to indigenous rights, transnational regulatory regimes and actors are multiplying and interacting with poorly understood effects. This interdisciplinary book investigates whether, how and by whom transnational business governance interactions (TBGIs) can be harnessed to improve the quality of transnational regulation and advance the interests of marginalized actors.

Regulating Transnational Sustainability Regimes

Regulating Transnational Sustainability Regimes
Author: Enrico Partiti
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2022-05-12
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1108943748

The book studies emergence and consolidation of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS); private standards defining sustainability-related product features. The book takes stock of their success and their potential in mediating between economic and non-economic concerns of global production. Despite their private and voluntary nature, VSS generate profound consequences for the producers seeking certification, for the consumers purchasing certified products, and for others affected by their standards. VSS are used by public authorities in the EU as a functional complement to public measures regulating global value chains. At this juncture of market proliferation and public use of private regimes, this book studies how public authority can control, coordinate and review VSS. It studies how the regulation of VSS could unfold through substantive and procedural legal requirements in the domain of European Union law and World Trade Organisation law, as well as through the incentives offered by VSS employment in public measures.

Beyond Greenwash

Beyond Greenwash
Author: Hamish van der Ven
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2019-03-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190866012

From green frogs and blue angels to white bunnies, modern consumers are confronted by a growing array of colorful eco-labels on everything from coffee to computers. When eco-labels are credible, they can lead to dramatic change in environmental practices broadly and quickly by leveraging the purchasing power of corporate clients (e.g., Walmart and McDonalds) to influence global supply chains. But the credibility of such labels is highly variable; and despite the existence of established practices for eco-labeling, many labels remain little more than superficial exercises in "greenwash." How can consumers separate greenwash from genuine attempts to address environmental challenges? Beyond Greenwash addresses this question by systematically investigating the credibility of transnational eco-labeling organizations across countries and commercial sectors. Using an innovative proxy measure for credibility that examines adherence to established best practices, Hamish van der Ven proposes a novel theory of rigor and credibility in transnational eco-labeling that upends conventional wisdom. He argues that the credibility of an eco-label does not depend on who creates or manages it-whether a government, industry association, professional standard setter, or environmental NGO. Rather, it depends on which types of businesses use the label. More specifically, eco-labeling organizations that target bigger, consumer-facing retailers tend to create credible eco-labels out of a desire to insulate their clients from critical scrutiny and gain acceptance in new markets. This theory challenges the conventional wisdom that only governments or environmental NGOs can create meaningful environmental governance and suggests that who is being governed matters as much, if not more, than who is doing the governing.

MNCs in Global Politics

MNCs in Global Politics
Author: John Mikler
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2020-12-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1789903238

This authoritative book examines the power of multinational corporations (MNCs) to exert influence in global politics. Focusing on the actions and motivations of MNCs, it explores how they attempt to shape the political issues that affect them.

The Role of the EU in Transnational Legal Ordering

The Role of the EU in Transnational Legal Ordering
Author: Marta Cantero Gamito
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2020-02-28
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1788118413

This book explores questions of transnational private legal theory in the context of the external dimension of EU private law. The interaction between existing theories of transnational ordering and the external reach of European Regulatory Private Law is articulated through examination of what are found to be the three major proxies of transnational private ordering: private contracts, standards and codes.

Global Environmental Governance and Small States

Global Environmental Governance and Small States
Author: Michelle Scobie
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2019
Genre: Environmental economics
ISBN: 1786437279

Global Environmental Governance gives the perspectives of small states on some of the most important issues of the anthropocene, from trade, climate change and energy security to tourism, marine governance, and heritage. Providing an in depth analysis of global environmental governance and its impact on Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS) Michelle Scobie explores which dynamics and contexts influence current policy and future environmental outcomes for one of the most biodiverse regions of the planet.

Global Environmental Governance and the Accountability Trap

Global Environmental Governance and the Accountability Trap
Author: Susan Park
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2019-02-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0262536234

An examination of whether accountability mechanisms in global environmental governance that focus on monitoring and enforcement necessarily lead to better governance and better environmental outcomes. The rapid development of global environmental governance has been accompanied by questions of accountability. Efforts to address what has been called “a culture of unaccountability” include greater transparency, public justification for governance decisions, and the establishment of monitoring and enforcement procedures. And yet, as this volume shows, these can lead to an “accountability trap”—a focus on accountability measures rather than improved environmental outcomes. Through analyses and case studies, the contributors consider how accountability is being used within global environmental governance and if the proliferation of accountability tools enables governance to better address global environmental deterioration. Examining public, private, voluntary, and hybrid types of global environmental governance, the volume shows that the different governance goals of the various actors shape the accompanying accountability processes. These goals—from serving constituents to reaping economic benefits—determine to whom and for what the actors must account. After laying out a theoretical framework for its analyses, the book addresses governance in the key areas of climate change, biodiversity, fisheries, and trade and global value chains. The contributors find that normative biases shape accountability processes, and they explore the potential of feedback mechanisms between institutions and accountability rules for enabling better governance and better environmental outcomes. Contributors Graeme Auld, Harro van Asselt, Cristina Balboa, Lieke Brouwer, Lorraine Elliott, Lars H. Gulbrandsen, Aarti Gupta, Teresa Kramarz, Susan Park, Philipp Pattberg, William H. Schaedla, Hamish van der Ven, Oscar Widerberg

Just Transitions

Just Transitions
Author: Dimitris Stevis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2023-05-18
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1108944558

Just transition prompts us to explore a number of important dimensions of Earth System Governance research, including sustainability transformations, inequality, power and justice. This Element aims to place just transition in the dynamics of the world political economy over the last several decades and to offer an overview of the varieties of just transitions based on an analytical scheme that focuses on their breadth (coverage), depth (social and ecological priorities) and ambition. The focus on breadth, depth and ambition centers on power, inequality and injustice and allows us to analyze and compare just transitions as a prerequisite for their fuller interpretation.

Business, Civil Society and the ‘New’ Politics of Corporate Tax Justice

Business, Civil Society and the ‘New’ Politics of Corporate Tax Justice
Author: Richard Eccleston
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2018-11-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1788114973

Since the financial crisis the extent of corporate tax avoidance has attracted media headlines and the attention of political leaders the world over. This study examines the ‘new’ politics of corporate taxation and the role of civil society organisations in shaping the international tax agenda and influencing the tax practices of the world’s largest and most powerful corporations. It highlights the complex and multi-dimensional strategies used by activists to influence public opinion, formal regulation and corporate behaviour in relation to international taxation.