Global Business Regulation

This book confronts the question of how the regulation of business has shifted from national to global institutions. Based on interviews with 500 international leaders in business and government, this book examines the role played by global institutions such as the WTO, IMF and the World Bank, as well as various NGOs and significant individuals. The authors argue that effective and decent global regulation depends on the determination of individuals to engage with powerful agendas and decision-making bodies that would otherwise be dominated by concentrated economic interests.

For years, businesses have complained about the costs of regulatory compliance. On the other hand, society is becoming increasingly aware of the environmental, safety, health, financial, and other risks of business activity. Government oversight seems to be one of the answers to safeguard against these risks. But how can we deregulate and regulate without jeopardizing our public goals or acting as a brake on economic growth? Many instruments are available to assess the effects of laws regulating business, including the regulatory impact assessment (RIA), which contains cost/benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, risk analysis, and cost assessments. This book argues that public goals will be achieved more effectively if compliance costs of the enterprises are as low as possible. Highlighting examples from a wide spectrum of industries and countries, the authors propose a new kind of RIA, the business impact assessment (BIA), designed to improve both business and public policy decision making.

Brian Nelson provides a comprehensive guide to integrating legal and ethical issues into global business decisions and corporations.

This volume assesses the achievements and limitations of a new set of non-state or multistakeholder institutions that are concerned with improving the social and environmental record of business, and holding corporations to account. It does so from a perspective that aims to address two limitations that often characterize this field of inquiry. First, fragmentation: articles or books typically focus on one or a handful of cases. Second, the development dimension: what does such regulation imply for developing countries and subaltern groups in terms of well-being, empowerment and sustainability? This volume examines more than 20 initiatives or institutions associated with different regulatory and development approaches, including the business-friendly corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda, ‘corporate accountability’ and ‘fair trade’ or social economy.

Regulation by public and private organizations can be hijacked by special interests or small groups of powerful firms, and nowhere is this easier than at the global level. In whose interest is the global economy being regulated? Under what conditions can global regulation be made to serve broader interests? This is the first book to examine systematically how and why such hijacking or "regulatory capture" happens, and how it can be averted. Walter Mattli and Ngaire Woods bring together leading experts to present an analytical framework to explain regulatory outcomes at the global level and offer a series of case studies that illustrate the challenges of a global economy in which many institutions are less transparent and are held much less accountable by the media and public officials than are domestic institutions. They explain when and how global regulation falls prey to regulatory capture, yet also shed light on the positive regulatory changes that have occurred in areas including human rights, shipping safety, and global finance. This book is a wake-up call to proponents of network governance, self-regulation, and the view that technocrats should be left to regulate with as little oversight as possible. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Kenneth W. Abbott, Samuel Barrows, Judith L. Goldstein, Eric Helleiner, Miles Kahler, David A. Lake, Kathryn Sikkink, Duncan Snidal, Richard H. Steinberg, and David Vogel.

This book provides an accessible introduction to selected new issues in transnational law, and connects them to existing theoretical debates on transnational business regulation. More specifically, (i) it introduces the argument about the evolving character of contemporary international business regulation; (ii) it provides an overview of some of the main fields of law that are currently important for firms that operate across borders; and (iii) it sets out an interpretive framework for making sense of disparate developments occurring across a number of jurisdictions, among which are the form of regulation and style of enforcement, issues of legal certainty, and behavioural aspects of regulation. The selected topics are indicative of some key issues confronting businesses looking to operate across national borders, as well as policy makers seeking to introduce and enforce meaningful regulatory standards in an increasingly global society. Topics include: consumer law; product liability; warranty law and obsolescence; collective redress; alternative dispute resolution; corporate wrongdoing; corporate governance; and e-commerce. This timely work offers a novel perspective on transnational business law and examines a range of legal issues that preoccupy companies operating transnationally. This book is intended not only for law students looking for an introduction, overview or commentary on the contemporary state of international business law, but also for anyone looking for an introduction to the regulation of business in a global, inter-connected economy.

The premise of this volume is that business regulations are expected to grow in the near future as a consequence of the emergence of a “(world) risk society.” Risks related to terrorism, climate change, and financial crises, for example, will penetrate all conditions of life. Increasingly, the decisions and actions of some bring about risks for many in this era of globalization. Controlling these risks implies managing the world through high-quality regulation, with a particular emphasis on businesses and financial institutions. Central to this approach is the argument that a major, if not the primary, aim of regulation is to internalize externalities, or in a broader context, to repair market failure. Such repair can only be accomplished when the costs are smaller than the welfare gains. Featuring contributions from researchers and policy analysts from the fields of economics, management, law, sociology, political science, and environmental policy, this book focuses on three major topics: • Social risks and business regulation • Preconditions for better business regulation • Theoretical issues related to better business regulation Collectively, the authors demonstrate that the easier it is for regulated businesses to comply at the lowest costs possible—without jeopardizing the related public goals—the greater the degree of compliance. When successful, the net result is a balance of individual and collective net benefits, and by further implication, sustainable business practice and economic growth.