Companies are the engine room of national and global economies but are also responsible for much social and environmental harm. Social and environmental harms caused by corporate activity include fossil fuel companies’ fuelling of climate change, tobacco and junk food companies’ responsibility for public health, ‘modern slavery’ in food and clothing supply chains, abuse of animals in the production of food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, plastic pollution, and the increasing concern that artificial intelligence will be used to replace human workers and creators. This course provides the opportunity for students to consider how corporate governance and business regulation might ensure corporate environmental and social responsibility and hold companies legally accountable when things go wrong.
This topic is particularly suitable for a case study approach in which students find a scandal or problem of corporate misconduct and suggest how to reform law and practice to solve the problem for the future. Students can choose a research project in any area of corporate social or environmental regulation and responsibility.
Students will learn how to analyse a case study of corporate responsibility problem starting with stakeholder analysis of the issues and values at stake and using an array of interacting formal and informal organisational, legal and regulatory tools to address the problem. These may include corporate law and governance, international norms of human rights, due diligence, and environmental social governance (ESG), and various regimes of formal and informal business regulation such as environmental, health and safety, food and financial.