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ABSTRACTThe nature of activism concerned with the activities of transnational corporations has changed in recent years. In the 1990s, an increasing number of NGOs opted for collaboration as opposed to confrontation. By the turn of the millennium, there were signs that another approach was gaining ground, one that involved new campaigns for corporate accountability and legalistic regulation. This article examines the changing contours of contestation and civil society–business relations. It identifies two sets of conditions that are driving the contemporary 'corporate accountability movement': transformations occurring in the nature of capitalism that connect TNCs with global inequality and injustice; and the failures and limitations of the mainstream corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda. It then highlights core conceptual and strategic elements that distinguish the CSR and corporate accountability 'movements' and assesses the potential of the latter to reassert social control over corporate capitalism.

What is the impact of environmental law on private companies especially multinationals? How are international organizations interacting with businesses regarding the environment? This text responds to these topical questions by identifying corporate accountability standards and their implementation.

The need for corporate environmental accountability -- History and definitions -- The shortcomings of traditional legal solutions -- Primary rules? -- The UN and the OECD : parallel or convergent paths? -- A contribution of human rights monitoring bodies? -- Standard-setting by international financial institutions -- Emerging standards on corporate accountability in IEL -- Tools for compliance -- The tools of international financial institutions : conditions in loan agreements and complaints mechanisms -- Sharpening the monitoring role of other international organizations -- Integrating international standards in UN-business partnerships

In recent decades, corporations have increasingly accepted that they have obligations to respect the socio-economic rights of individuals whose rights to livelihoods, education, food, health, housing and water are affected by the actions of corporations on a daily basis. Despite this, it is often difficult for victims to bring corporations to court for violations of their socio-economic rights. Domestic constitutional systems provide, at best, fragile and limited protections against adverse corporate activities, while international responses have been lacking in creating obligations and accountability for corporations under socio-economic rights. The urgency of bolstering corporate accountability for socio-economic rights is therefore apparent. In light of this, this book asks whether corporations are required to observe socio-economic rights and if they are accountable for any violations. In doing so, it identifies and analyzes the theoretical foundations and the existing scope of corporate accountability arising from socio-economic rights at both national and international levels. Through careful analysis, Jernej Letnar ?erni? exposes the stark need for greater clarity in the obligations and accountability of corporations, advocating a normative framework for corporate accountability for socio-economic rights in national legal orders which builds on existing mechanisms.

This special issue addresses the role of law in corporate accountability. Case studies reference people affected by asbestos in Italy, a coal company anticipating closure in Colombia, and both activists and human rights lawyers concerned with the impacts of mining in Ecuador. The afterword considers the significance of temporality in the law, including limits on retrospective claims and efforts to expand the prospective reach of both the law and state policy. It describes the perspectival character of the law in which the forum determines how the underlying facts are seen. It examines how responsibility, against a backdrop of distributed agency, is conceptualized by shortening or expanding chains of liability. It also points to the need for stronger connections between the anthropology of suffering and the discipline's ethical turn. Finally, it suggests that the legal claims discussed here are aspirational in the sense of describing how the world ought to be.

Examines corporate activity in the developing world, focusing on different campaigns and their achievements; includes strategic goal, target of activity, method, initiating actors, and geographical scope; some focus on North-South partnerships. Adapted from the authors' monograph prepared for the World Wildlife Fund and World Resource Institute.