Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons^™

Corporate Codes In The Varieties Of Capitalism: How Their Enforcement Depends On The Differences Among Production Regimes, Gunther Teubner

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Globalization has reinforced the conflicts among the varieties of capitalism. The colliding units are not just nation states, but transnational production regimes, which cut through national boundaries. The conflicts lead global corporate codes, which are developed by international organizations, to take different directions when they are concretized on the enterprise level. They will be differently enforced according to whether they are located in Liberal Market Economies (LME), adapted to the New Sovereignty of enterprises, or in Coordinated Market Economies (CME) with greater components of social welfare state and economic democracy.

Different patterns of enforcement emerge particularly when the courts have …

Corporate Codes As Private Co-Regulatory Instruments In Corporate Governance And Responsibility And Their Enforcement, Jan Eijsbouts

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) codes have gained a prominent role as tools in self-regulation for companies to establish their basic values, norms, and rules that condition the conduct of directors, managers, employees, and-increasingly-of suppliers. This development must be seen in the light of two important paradigmatic changes in the concepts both of CSR and corporate governance. The former is no longer purely voluntary and the latter has become inclusive of CSR, each with far-reaching consequences for the raison d'itre and the place and function of the codes in the smart regulatory mix governing corporations. While the codes were based originally …

Adrift In The Sea: The Impact Of The Business Supply Chain Transparency On Trafficking And Slavery Act Of 2015 On Forced Labor In The Thai Fishing Industry, Katharine Fischman

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Hundreds of thousands of men and boys are trafficked and enslaved on long-haul fishing boats in the waters off the coast of Thailand. These captives endure physical and mental abuse, inhumane working conditions, meager sustenance, and little sleep as they are forced to catch fish used in products such as cat food. This Note will focus on whether a proposed Act-the Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2015 (BSCT)-would impact the issue of forced labor linked to the seafood industry in Thailand, and particularly the portion of the industry that supplies fish used in American brand …

Pitfalls Of Over-Legalization: When The Law Crowds Out And Spills Over, Mark Kawakami

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

While some academics argue that enforcing voluntary corporate codes of conduct with private law backed sanctions can improve the working conditions of marginalized workers in the global supply chain, there are various risks associated with this "legalization" process. Relying on evidence from the fields of sociology, psychology, and evolutionary anthropology, this contribution will discuss how external incentives like threats of legal sanctions can actually be detrimental to the intrinsic motivations of companies that want to be socially responsible. This paper will also analyze how the crowding out effect and the spillover effect that come with legalizing otherwise voluntary norms could …

Contract-Boundary-Spanning Governance Mechanisms: Conceptualizing Fragmented And Globalized Production As Collectively Governed Entities, Jaakko Salminen

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Conceptualizing how private actors can and should control their supply chains is a tricky question with both economic and legal dimensions. The topic is of extreme importance in today's global economy. On the one hand, this importance is highlighted by events such as the catastrophic and deadly collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in Bangladesh and the economic fiasco of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant construction project in Finland, both arguably caused by the lack of effective supply chain governance. On the other hand, the potential benefits of successful supply chain governance, shown by examples such as open …