African Union and Public Health Crises in a Regional Legal Order

In the context of responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, the paper examines the African regional regime for public health crises and disasters. Using the combined analytic lenses of Capability Approach, Institutional Theory, Constructivism, New Regionalism Approach and Actor Network Theory, it focuses on the opportunities offered by, and limitations of, the African Union legal order

MNEs, non-financial reporting, process advertising and globalization

Author's post-print versionThe conduct of modern corporations, particularly multinational enterprises (MNEs), is increasingly linked to broader social and other values and expectations. Consequently, modern public relations practice appears to extend to non-financial aspects of corporate activity. Non-financial issues are expanding in content and scope. Such issues are in some cases, evidently ‘global’ issues. Evidence suggests proliferation of, mainly, voluntary non-financial reports. Awareness of, and reliance on, such reports is increasing. Regulation of corporate reporting in many jurisdictions appears to be solely, (or at least mainly), targeted at financial reporting. The critical question is whether it is the appropriate stage for legal and regulatory intervention in MNE non-financial reporting. Is there any public issue of responsibility in such reporting? Is non-financial reporting a class of advertising? Can one classify non-financial reporting as process advertising

Business-to-consumer harassment, Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and the UK: a distorted picture of uniform harmonisation?

Author's draft. Final version published in Journal of Consumer Policy. Available online on http://www.springerlink.com/The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005 (UCPD) attempts to achieve a full harmonisation of the rules against unfair business-to-consumer (B2C) practices. However, this paper argues that the UCPD cannot resolve disparities in national laws because of a lack of clarity of concepts and the existence of uncertain substantive and enforcement provisions. This is demonstrated by the Ferguson v British Gas case which extended the loosely formulated UK Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (PHA) to B2C harassment cases covered by the UCPD. Ferguson highlights contradictions in the approaches of the two systems which suggest loopholes in the UCPD’s full harmonisation goal. As well as proposing the amendment of the PHA, the paper suggests that complete harmonisation requires that issues of clarity of concepts, definitions, liability, ancillary tort claims and enforcement rights which create room for creative interpretations and lack of uniformity should be addressed. A one-stop legislation approach to transposition can also improve harmonisation

Corporate Social Responsibility in Supply Chains of Global Brands: A Boundaryless Responsibility? Clarifications, exceptions and implications

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly becoming a popular business concept in developed economies. As typical of other business concepts, it is on its way to globalization through practices and structures of the globalized capitalist world order, typified in Multinational Corporations (MNCs). However, CSR often sits uncomfortably in this capitalist world order, as MNCs are often challenged by the global reach of their supply chains and the possible irresponsible practices inherent along these chains. The possibility of irresponsible practices puts global firms under pressure to protect their brands even if it means assuming responsibilities for the practices of their suppliers. Pressure groups understand this burden on firms and try to take advantage of the situation. This paper seeks to challenge the often taken-for-granted-assumption that firms should be accountable for the practices of their suppliers by espousing the moral (and sometimes legal) underpinnings of the concept of responsibility. Except where corporate control and or corporate grouping exist, it identifies the use of power as a critical factor to be considered in allocating responsibility in firm-supplier relationship; and suggests that the more powerful in this relationship has a responsibility to exert some moral influence on the weaker party. The paper highlights the use of code of conducts, corporate culture, anti-pressure group campaigns, personnel training and value reorientation as possible sources of wielding positive moral influence along supply chains

Asset management companies, non-performing loans and systemic crisis: A developing country perspective

Article on the Nigerian response to the Global Financial Crisis with a focus on the background to the crisi

Online Peer-to-Peer Lending: Challenging Consumer Protection Rationales, Orthodoxies and Models?

Online peer-to-peer lending presents challenges to consumer protection rationales and orthodoxies as it enables inter-consumer unsecured loan transactions brokered by platforms. This article therefore assesses relevant consumer protection justifications and the disclosure versus interventionist approaches debate in the light of the crowdfunding regulatory regime recently established by the Financial Conduct Authority

Corporate Social Responsibility, Juridification and Globalization: ‘Inventive Interventionism’ for a ‘Paradox’

Onyeka Osuji University of Exeter Law Amory Building, Rennes Drive Exeter EX4 4RJ United KingdomArticleThis is the author's version of an article accepted for publication by Cambridge University Press in International Journal of Law in Context, Volume 11, 2015.© Cambridge University Press 2015The definitive version will be available via: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=IJCThis article proposes ‘inventive interventionism’ as a regulatory approach to incorporate substantive outcomes, stakeholder empowerment, effective disclosure and a global multi-stakeholder and multidimensional view of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social disclosure. Inventive interventionism also applies new paradigms of regulation that recognize CSR as one of the proximate engineers of efficient public governance and ultimate sources of socioeconomic development. The article adopts a transnational and comparative approach to regulatory CSR and situates the voluntary and prescriptive approaches in the wider regulation debate. It draws on reflexive law, responsive regulation, institutional and other theories to demonstrate that existing CSR regulations in several jurisdictions are not representative of the law’s multidimensional and multidirectional nature. Inventive interventionism reflects a functional approach to the law-CSR dialectic relationship and contributes to the development of an analytical framework for CSR and reforming its national and global regulatory environment

Fluidity of Regulation-CSR Nexus: The Multinational Corporate Corruption Example

bribery, Bribery Act 2010, corporate social responsibility, corruption, globalization, pluralism, regulation,

Establishing the legal framework for non-financial reporting by multinational enterprises

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