Corporate Environmental Accountability in International Law 2E

This fully updated second edition of Corporate Accountability in International Environmental Law examines systematically all international sources of corporate accountability standards with specific reference to environmental protection, and elaborates 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 practice points to the emergence and consolidation of international 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 who, in the absence of State intervention, identify and promote the application of selected international environmental standards is analyzed in depth. This analysis demonstrates how these international organizations are a driving force in establishing and operationalizing international standards for corporate environmental accountability.

The new edition includes recent an assessment of the Rio+20 Summit, analysis of the UN Framework on Business and Human Rights, and the 2012 Performance Standards. It contains a discussion on the role of 'fair and equitable benefit-sharing' under the Convention on Biological Diversity and international human rights law, and analysis of the monitoring practice of the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples' Rights.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Elisa Morgera, Professor in Global Environmental Law, University of Edinburgh

Elisa Morgera is Professor in Global Environmental Law at the University of Edinburgh School of Law and Adjunct Professor at the University of Eastern Finland. She specializes in international, European and comparative environmental law, and has published widely on biodiversity, environmental governance, corporate environmental accountability, and the EU external environmental policy. Elisa was a former officer of the UN Development Programme and UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Since 2012 she has conducted a series of consultancies for the FAO and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to support the development of new international standards on responsible business conduct in the agricultural sector.

Part I: Preliminary Questions
1. The Need for Corporate Environmental Accountability
2. History and Definitions
3. The Shortcomings of Traditional Legal Solutions
Part II: Emerging International Standards of Corporate Environmental Accountability
4. Primary Rules
5. The UN and the OECD: Convergent Paths
6. A Contribution of Human Rights Monitoring Bodies?
7. Standard-setting by International Financial Institutions
8. Corporate Accountability Standards in International Environmental Law
Part III: Tools for Compliance with Standards of Corporate Environmental Accountability
9. Tools for Compliance
10. International Human Rights and Environmental Treaty Bodies
11. International Financial Institutions
12. International Corporate Accountability Implementation Mechanisms