Sustainable Corporate Governance: The Role of the Law (original) (raw)
Related papers
Corporate Governance for Sustainability: Statement
SSRN, 2020
Current corporate governance practice is contributing to a wide range of systemic risks, as well as devastating social, environmental and economic impacts. 16 With less than a decade left 17 in which to address the catastrophic threat of climate change, and with investors, companies, accountants, policymakers and academics expressing a shared sense of urgency, now is the time to act to reform corporate governance.
Comenius University in Bratislava, 2018
In this mapping, we provide an overview and analysis of the relevant national policies and legal instruments in Slovakia, with the objective of identifying and describing policy or legal instruments that have a potential of introducing stronger sustainability within the corporate behavior, i.e., trade, investment, corporate governance instruments or otherwise. We primarily assess company law, including assessment of various business and non-profit legal forms and social enterprises, financial markets law, public procurement law, tax law, transparency requirements, sustainable development policies, investment policies, and the implementation of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the activities of the national contact point.
Planetary Boundaries and Company Law: Towards a Regulatory Ecology of Corporate Sustainability
2017
Co-authors Beate Sjåfjell and Mark B. Taylor - Regulatory approaches to promoting environmentally and socially sustainable behavior by companies are undergoing a radical reassessment. There is now no question as to the severity of the risks to people and the planet posed by continued inaction on the part of the private sector. The assumption of many leaders in business and government is that the transformation of the private sector can be achieved through a hands-off approach, one which encourages growth combined with a social transformation of company practice (CSR). Yet, traditional public policy approaches to encourage this sustainable transformation – for example, incentives for investment combined with reputational risks based on transparency – have yet to deliver the necessary widespread changes in corporate practice, let alone verifiable impacts in terms of social responsibility or climate gas emissions. As a result, there are increasing calls for a heavier regulatory burden, including liabilities to deter unsustainable behavior by companies. This paper suggests an analytical framework for the regulatory reassessment now underway. Drawing on polycentric approaches to regulation (Lessig 1998; 1999; Black, 2008; Murray 2007) we propose a regulatory ecology of corporate sustainability which integrates the regulatory effects of law with the regulatory effects of markets, social norms and architecture (material constraints). We place the company at the centre of this regulatory ecology and consider the modalities of regulation which affect corporate respect for people and the planet. We focus in particular on company law and sustainability, building on the results of a comparative law research in 26 countries (Sjåfjell and Richardson 2015), and on the emerging field of business and human rights (Taylor, 2011; Ruggie, 2013). The paper identifies the increasing influence of external regulation on internal company regulation and suggests directions for further legal research to better understand – and regulate – the transition to a sustainable private sector.
Editorial: Current issues in corporate governance and sustainability
Corporate Governance and Sustainability Review
Debates on current issues of governance and sustainability remain open dialogues among scholars, practitioners, regulators, and policymakers towards a good balance between ecological, social, and economic return of strategic investment decisions (Alkaraan, 2018). Such dialogues are matters of critical issues relevant to Sustainable Development Goals (Alkaraan, 2021a). The five papers published in this issue add to our knowledge and offer a better understanding of the influence of contextual factors surrounding governance and sustainability issues in different contexts and settings.
Editorial: Recent debates on corporate governance and sustainability
Corporate Governance and Sustainability Review, 2021
Corporate governance and sustainability issues created dialogues among researchers, practitioners, regulators, and policy-makers. This is not surprising due to the impact of such debates on organisational performance, environmental and social issues relevant to Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs). The six papers published in this issue add to our knowledge various implications and social applications and offer the opportunity to gain a better understanding of corporate governance and sustainability in different contexts and settings
Corporate governance and sustainability
The paper focuses on Sustainability and Corporate Governance from the point of view of integration and, in connection with the measurement of corporate performance, Corporate Sustainability Reporting is also gaining in importance. Corporate Governance is understood as a key element when reaching economic performance and growth enabling to increase the investors' trust. Further on, it enables to create the structures supporting determination, control and reach of corporate objectives and targets. It provides creation of suitable initiatives for the members of administrative bodies and the management. In accordance with the OECD principles (OECD Principles, 2004) it is assumed that the effectively functioning Corporate Governance system within the company and across the whole economy assists to create the confidence and trust necessary for existence of the market economy. A very wide spectrum of sectors coming under the Corporate Governance also appears when trying to define this term succinctly. Integrated with sustainability which is defined as corporate strategy, long-term corporate goals are followed along with effectiveness, performance and competitiveness by means of incorporating of economic, environmental and social aspects into corporate governance.
Wuppertal Papers, 2003
Transnational corporations' (TNCs) economic operations cover numerous countries and can be diverted between several continents. These units have reached a level of significance, having not only economic, but also social and environmental implications. This justifies that they shall be treated separately as a social phenomenon, when considering strategies for the development towards sustainability. This paper presents the concept of Responsible Corporate Governance (RCG), as a strategy to "govern" TNCs. RCG is suggested as a stakeholder based policy instrument, which aims at allocating responsibilities to societal actors aiming at corporate accountability. RCG recognises that the process of societal change is strongly based on what can be called as bottom up-processes. Learning processes take place through the interaction of the different societal members, which eventually leads to macro changes. Therefore, governing TNCs towards sustainability improvements is considered to be a collective process including all stakeholders. Firstly, the paper places the concept of RCG in the ongoing debate of political modernization based on the fact that society develops overtime and the political system must correspondingly modernize. In this context, political overload developed as a consequence of increased resource interdependencies is explained and as a resolution, network approach is discussed. Secondly, demands on the orientation of the TNCs in terms of accountability and innovative action are brought forward. Here, the paper also lists down corporate elements (stakeholder empowered corporate governance, management and performance evaluation systems, transparency enhancement and accountability verification), which need to be in place to attain an accountable orientation in the society. Following, using an analytical framework, the orientation and capabilities of each societal actor (environmental non-governmental organisations, financial institutions, intergovernmental organisations) to affect improvements in the corporate responsibility elements are investigated and recommendations for their effective orientation are listed. We would like to sincerely thank Jola Welfens for her review, Timo Busch for his valuable and extensive input regarding the section on financial institutions, Andreas Villar and Martin Herrndorf for their indispensable work, Wolfgang Sachs, Tilman Santarius and Yuval Somekh for his comments, Monika Kieslich for her efforts to make this paper reader friendly and many more, whose name we can not state here, for their contribution to this Wuppertal Paper.
The International Journal of Accounting, 2008