Details
- Provides a comprehensive overview of the subject area, including an historical perspective and a combination of theoretical analysis and pragmatic observation of current practice
- Presents an issue currently being addressed in international fora, academic debates and policy discussions at the national and international level
- Offers a systematic analysis of the environmental dimension of corporate accountability across all business sectors
- Analyses in detail the role of intergovernmental organizations, who, in light of the lack of consensus among States, are increasingly engaging with non-State actors directly
What is the current and future role of international environmental law in directing and controlling the conduct of business enterprises, particularly multinational corporations? This book responds to this question by identifying corporate accountability standards and discussing their implementation by international organizations.
This is the first book to examine systematically all international sources of corporate accountability standards with specific reference to environmental protection and to elaborate on their theoretical and practical implications for international environmental law. The book argues that although international environmental law does not bind multinational corporations and other business entities, growing international practice points to the emergence of legal standards. These standards allow adapting and translating inter-State obligations embodied in international environmental law into specific normative benchmarks to determine the legitimacy of the conduct of the private sector against internationally recognized values and rules.
The role of international organizations that, in the absence of State intervention, identify and promote the application of selected international environmental standards is analysed in depth. This analysis demonstrates how these international organizations are a driving force in establishing and operationalizing international standards for corporate environmental accountability.
Readership: International scholars, teachers and students of international law and politics, international organizations' officers, environmental activists and the increasing number of corporate accountability advisers to private companies
List of Acronyms
Table of Treaties and International Materials
Table of Cases
Part I: Preliminary Questions
1: The Need for Corporate Environmental Accountability
2: History and Definitions
3: The Shortcomings of Traditional Legal Solutions
Part II: Emerging International Standards of Corporate Environmental Accountability
4: Primary Rules?
5: The UN and the OECD: Parallel or Convergent Paths?
6: A Contribution of Human Rights Monitoring Bodies?
7: Standard-setting by International Financial Institutions
8: Emerging Standards on Corporate Accountability in IEL
Part III: Tools for Compliance with Standards of Corporate Environmental Accountability
9: Tools for Compliance
10: The Tools of International Financial Institutions: Conditions in Loan Agreements and Complaints Mechanisms
11: Sharpening the Monitoring Role of Other International Organizations
12: Integrating International Standards in UN-Business Partnerships
13: Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
Elisa Morgera, Legal Officer for the Development Law Service at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
"The scholarship and methodological rigor displayed in the book, make it of considerable value to a variety of audiences: governmental and nongovernmental; academic and activist; workers, communities and consumers; policy-makers, implementing bureaucrats and monitoring officials; and national, regional and international institutions of development, finance and trade." - Ayesha Dias, Oil, Gas & Energy Law Intelligence
