...a timely, thought-provoking collection that covers a diverse range of topical and problematic subject areas. The editors and authors clearly believe that official and private regulation can work in tandem, enhancing the overall impact of the regulatory aims and present compelling empirical and theoretical evidence to support this belief. It would be an excellent addition to any library seeking to expand not just its regulation and governance titles, but also its international economic, environmental and socio-legal titles.
Fiona Marshall
The Law and Politics Book Review
Vol 19 No 3, March 2009
...a range of fascinating theoretical,doctrinal and empirical insights into the nature of the self-regulatory settings for multinational corporations and transnational economic networks, as well conceptualising the legal significance of self-regulatory arrangements and the conditions under which private governance may flourish...highly recommended to environmental law students, scholars and policy-makers seeking a more sophisticated understanding of the complex and dynamic shifts in national and transnational governance that have increasingly diluted (but certainly not rendered irrelevant) the role of the state and its formal law-making processes. The wealth of case studies and meticulous empirical evidence, combined with high theory, make for a very plausible analysis of one of the most significant trends in environmental and economic governance...a worthwhile addition to nearly any environmental law library.
Benjamin J Richardson
Journal of Environmental Law
Vol 21, No 1, 2009
The text leaves the reader with a well-balanced and structured approach to how businesses should govern themselves and act responsibly in the marketplace; the case studies act as a useful practical tool to reason the law against; and the text is a must-read for any academic or postgraduate student interested in how businesses operate and how to act reponsibly in the marketplace in order to avoid market failure.
Andrew James Perkins, (Gray's Inn), Swansea University
International Trade Law and Regulation
Volume 15, Issue 5 (2009)
Interdisciplinary in its inception and empirical in its approach, the volume draws primarily from sociology, law, and political science to provide a through-provoking and optimistic story about the emergent potential for self-governance and private ordering to produce systems of rules and norms that increasingly—and explicitly—regulate public goods, in the public interest. The book's value is its explicitly interdisciplinary focus on empirical and legal accounts, attempting to ground governance theory in specific examples. As such, it should have wide appeal.
Laura Spitz
Law and Society Review
Volume 44, Issue 2
