Research Handbook on Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (Research Handbooks in Corporate Law and Governance series)

The Research Handbook on Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance presents a comprehensive view of a rapidly evolving area of study. Adopting a comparative approach, it goes beyond issues of sustainability and human rights, covering the whole spectrum of ESG and its regulatory developments. Astutely organized into clearly defined and thematic sections, chapters tackle classic questions relating to corporate governance, assess the current state of ESG and address important issues arising from its development. A carefully selected, distinguished and diverse cast of authors explore topics including directors’ duties and managerial decision-making, the changing landscape of investor and shareholder activism, investment and fund regulation, and ESG initiatives in international law. This interdisciplinary Research Handbook is essential reading for academics and students of law, environmental studies, and politics and public policy. Legal practitioners of corporate law, capital markets law and securities regulation will also benefit from this authoritative analysis of ESG regulatory developments. Front Matter Copyright Contents Tables Contributors Acknowledgments Introduction to Research Handbook on Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance Part I Directors’ Duties and Managerial Decision-making 1. Taking stakeholder interests seriously: A practitioner’s view from Germany on management duties 2. ESG enhancements to company law: The French ‘PACTE’ law 3. How ESG is weakening the business judgement rule 4. Human rights, environmental due diligence, and value chain responsibility: A view from France, Germany, and the European Union Part II Investor and shareholder activism 5. Stewardship codes, ESG activism and transnational ordering 6. Climate proposals: ESG shareholder activism sidestepping board authority 7. ESG and workforce engagement: Experiences in the UK 8. ESG, the Alien Tort Statute, and private regulation’s legitimacy trap Part III Investment and fund regulation 9. EU ‘rule-based’ ESG duties for investment funds and their managers under the European ‘Green Deal’ 10. Green bonds: A legal and economic analysis 11. Green public finance: The role of central banks Part IV Disclosure regulation and ratings 12. The forces that shape mandatory ESG reporting 13. A green victory in the midst of potential defeat? Concern and optimism about the impact of the SEC’s climate-related disclosure rule 14. ESG ratings: Guiding a movement in search for itself Part V International law 15. ESG initiatives in international law 16. ESG and international criminal liability Part VI Regional developments 17 The EU Framework on ESG 18. The Nordic approach to corporate governance and ESG 19. ESG in China: A critical review from a legal perspective 20. ESG in Japan: The case of a mixed legal system 21. The legal and regulatory impetus towards ESG in India: Developments and challenges 22. Rethinking ESG in a regulatory, developmental and predatory state: SOEs and common law Asia Index