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 topical 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.
PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS; 1. The Need for Corporate Environmental Accountability; 2. History and Definitions; 3. The Shortcomings of Traditional Legal Solutions; 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 for Corporate Accountability in International Environmental Law; 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
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