Transnational Corporations and International Law: Accountability in the Global Business Environment

Transnational Corporations and International Law provides a comprehensive overview of existing laws and principles aimed at regulating the international behavior of transnational corporations (TNCs).

Alice de Jonge highlights the inadequacies and possibilities inherent in the current regulatory network and also outlines a theoretical framework for bringing TNCs more comprehensively under the coverage of internationally-agreed standards of behavior. The book then explores institutional avenues for bringing TNCs to account when such standards are breached. The author also provides a unique perspective on the role of TNCs in the evolution of international environmental law. She concludes by highlighting the need for what the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, has called 'principled pragmatism' in developing both the theory and practice of international law as applied to global corporations.

This well-documented work will appeal to corporate leaders interested in understanding the related practicalities of international corporate liability as well as post-graduate students in international business and international policy studies. Policymakers, academics and researchers interested in a unique perspective on the future of the global corporation as an internationally responsible global citizen will find much to interest them in this book.

Contents: 1. The Corporation: A Good Tool but a Bad Master 2. Corporations Behaving Well: Voluntary Strategies 3. The State and the Multinational Corporation: The Investment Relationship 4. Extra-territorial Legislation and Corporate Liability 5. Corporate Criminal Liability for Extra-territorial Harms 6. Bringing the TNC Under the Jurisdiction of International Law: Theory and Principles 7. Bringing the TNC Under the Jurisdiction of International Law: Institutional Avenues 8. The Global Firm and the Environment 9. The International Court of Justice as a Global Court of Appeal