IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i22p9475-d444985.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Commons, the Common Good and Extraterritoriality: Seeking Sustainable Global Justice through Corporate Responsibility

Author

Listed:
  • Shuangge Wen

    (Centre for Jurisprudence Research, School of Law, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, Jilin, China
    Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law, Swansea University, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK)

  • Jingchen Zhao

    (Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, NG1 4FQ, UK)

Abstract

Despite their laudable intent, extraterritorial legal initiatives to promote corporate sustainability development have not been well received in practice, and are often seen as a window-dressing exercise. This article aims to conduct a conceptual and doctrinal analysis, offering a theoretical foundation that interprets corporate extraterritorial legislative attempts as legitimate in the context of globalisation, using the lens of “the commons” and “the common good”. We try to link the values and dimensions of “the commons” to the goals of corporate extraterritorial legislation, so that lawmaking attempts with extraterritorial reach will gain additional foundational support and achieve more effective and better controlled compliance. In particular, the article makes an original attempt to justify and develop a new notion, namely “the extraterritorial commons”. This notion is in harmony with, rather than contradicting, progressive legal attempts to address the mismatching and conflicting nature of the relationship between the traditional voluntarism of corporate extraterritorial responsibilities, particularly in relation to sustainability issues, and global trends towards more regulation in this area.

Suggested Citation

  • Shuangge Wen & Jingchen Zhao, 2020. "The Commons, the Common Good and Extraterritoriality: Seeking Sustainable Global Justice through Corporate Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-21, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:22:p:9475-:d:444985
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9475/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9475/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dani Rodrik, 2000. "How Far Will International Economic Integration Go?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 177-186, Winter.
    2. repec:bla:glopol:v:8:y:2017:i:s3:p:15-28 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Elaine Sternberg, 1997. "The Defects of Stakeholder Theory," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 3-10, January.
    4. Anne Tempel & Peter Walgenbach, 2007. "Global Standardization of Organizational Forms and Management Practices? What New Institutionalism and the Business‐Systems Approach Can Learn from Each Other," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 1-24, January.
    5. Chiara Mio & Andrea Venturelli, 2013. "Non‐financial Information About Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy in the Annual Reports of Listed Companies: Evidence from Italy and the UK," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(6), pages 340-358, November.
    6. Málovics, György & Csigéné, Noémi Nagypál & Kraus, Sascha, 2008. "The role of corporate social responsibility in strong sustainability," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 907-918, June.
    7. James Hine & Lutz Preuss, 2009. "“Society is Out There, Organisation is in Here”: On the Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility Held by Different Managerial Groups," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(2), pages 381-393, August.
    8. Nico Schrijver, 2016. "Managing the global commons: common good or common sink?," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(7), pages 1252-1267, July.
    9. Vanessa Ratten & Isabell M. Welpe, 2011. "Special issue: Community-based, social and societal entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5-6), pages 283-286, June.
    10. Burton, Brian K. & Dunn, Craig P., 1996. "Collaborative Control and the Commons: Safeguarding Employee Rights," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 277-288, July.
    11. Luc Fransen & Brian Burgoon & Genevieve LeBaron & Andreas Rühmkorf, 2017. "Steering CSR Through Home State Regulation: A Comparison of the Impact of the UK Bribery Act and Modern Slavery Act on Global Supply Chain Governance," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8, pages 15-28, May.
    12. Sharma, Piyush & Leung, T.Y. & Kingshott, Russel P.J. & Davcik, Nebojsa S. & Cardinali, Silvio, 2020. "Managing uncertainty during a global pandemic: An international business perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 188-192.
    13. Amy J Hillman & William P Wan, 2005. "The determinants of MNE subsidiaries' political strategies: evidence of institutional duality," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 36(3), pages 322-340, May.
    14. Paul B. Stephan, 2013. "The Political Economy of Extraterritoriality," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 1(1), pages 92-101.
    15. Fort, Timothy L., 1996. "Business as Mediating Institution1," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 149-163, April.
    16. John Armour & Simon Deakin & Suzanne J. Konzelmann, 2003. "Shareholder Primacy and the Trajectory of UK Corporate Governance," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 41(3), pages 531-555, September.
    17. John Armour & Simon Deakin & Suzanne J. Konzelmann, 2003. "Shareholder Primacy and the Trajectory of UK Corporate Governance," Working Papers wp266, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    18. Maryna Gulenko, 2018. "Mandatory CSR reporting—literature review and future developments in Germany [Nichtfinanzielle Berichterstattungspflicht – Literaturzusammenfassung und Mögliche Entwicklungen in Deutschland]," Sustainability Nexus Forum, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 3-17, December.
    19. Michael Carney & Eric Gedajlovic & Sujit Sur, 2011. "Corporate governance and stakeholder conflict," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 15(3), pages 483-507, August.
    20. Sison, Alejo José G. & Fontrodona, Joan, 2012. "The Common Good of the Firm in the Aristotelian-Thomistic Tradition," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(2), pages 211-246, April.
    21. Emmanouela Mandalaki & Marianna Fotaki, 2020. "The Bodies of the Commons: Towards a Relational Embodied Ethics of the Commons," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(4), pages 745-760, November.
    22. Paddy Ireland, 2010. "Limited liability, shareholder rights and the problem of corporate irresponsibility," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 34(5), pages 837-856.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marta Stanislawska, 2022. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Energy Crisis on CSR Policy in Transport Industry in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-32, November.
    2. Jingchen Zhao & Xiaoming Lu & Wangwei Lin, 2022. "Promoting Corporate Extraterritorial Sustainable Responsibility through the Lens of Social Licence to Operate," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-18, June.
    3. Jingchen Zhao, 2021. "Reimagining Corporate Social Responsibility in the Era of COVID-19: Embedding Resilience and Promoting Corporate Social Competence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-28, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lukáš Marek, 2012. "Institutional Differences Between the British and German Economic Models: Corporate Sector and Labour Market [Institucionální odlišnosti britského a německého ekonomického modelu. S důrazem na fire," Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2012(1), pages 25-38.
    2. Jeroen Veldman & Hugh Willmott, 2017. "Social ontology and the modern corporation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 41(5), pages 1489-1504.
    3. Labadi, Moufida & Nekhili, Mehdi, 2012. "Structure de propriété et partage de la valeur ajoutée : application aux entreprises françaises non financières du SBF120," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 12.
    4. Lippert, Inge, 2008. "Perspektivenverschiebungen in der Corporate Governance: Neuere Ansätze und Studien der Corporate-Governance-Forschung," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Knowledge, Production Systems and Work SP III 2008-302, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    5. Chahine, Salim & Daher, Mai & Saade, Samer, 2021. "Doing good in periods of high uncertainty: Economic policy uncertainty, corporate social responsibility, and analyst forecast error," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    6. Caleb Bernacchio, 2021. "Virtue Beyond Contract: A MacIntyrean Approach to Employee Rights," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(2), pages 227-240, June.
    7. Barone, Elisabetta & Ranamagar, Nathan & Solomon, Jill F., 2013. "A Habermasian model of stakeholder (non)engagement and corporate (ir)responsibility reporting," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 163-181.
    8. Chris Rees & Michael Gold, 2020. "Re‐connecting capitalism: prospects for the regulatory reform of the employee interest in UK takeovers," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(6), pages 502-516, November.
    9. Neil Conway & Simon Deakin & Suzanne Konzelmann & Héloïse Petit & Antoine Rebérioux & Frank Wilkinson, 2008. "The Influence of Stock Market Listing on Human Resource Management: Evidence for France and Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 46(4), pages 631-673, December.
    10. Simon Deakin & Richard Hobbs, 2006. "False dawn for CSR? Shifts in regulatory policy and the response of the corporate and financial sectors in Britain," Working Papers wp333, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    11. Stephen P. Ferris & Nilanjan Sen & Emre Unlu, 2009. "An International Analysis of Dividend Payment Behavior," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3-4), pages 496-522.
    12. Ding, Yuan & Richard, Jacques & Stolowy, Hervé, 2008. "Towards an understanding of the phases of goodwill accounting in four Western capitalist countries: From stakeholder model to shareholder model," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(7-8), pages 718-755.
    13. Azimjon Kuvandikov & Andrew Pendleton & David Higgins, 2014. "Employment Change after Takeovers: The Role of Executive Ownership," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 52(2), pages 191-236, June.
    14. Paul Bridgen & Marek Naczyk, 2019. "Shareholders of the World United? Organized Labour's Preferences on Corporate Governance under Pension Fund Capitalism in the United States, United Kingdom and France," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 57(3), pages 651-675, September.
    15. Adegbite, Emmanuel & Amaeshi, Kenneth & Nakajima, Chizu, 2013. "Multiple influences on corporate governance practice in Nigeria: Agents, strategies and implications," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 524-538.
    16. Simon Deakin & Richard Hobbs & Sue Konzelmann & Frank Wilkinson, 2005. "Anglo-American corporate governance and the employment relationship: a case to answer?," Working Papers wp308, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    17. Catherine Barnard & Simon Deakin & Richard Hobbs, 2004. "Reflexive law, corporate social responsibility and the evolution of labour standards: the case of working time," Working Papers wp294, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    18. Patrizia Gazzola & Daniele Grechi & Paola Ossola & Enrica Pavione, 2019. "Certified Benefit Corporations as a new way to make sustainable business: The Italian example," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1435-1445, November.
    19. Stephen P. Ferris & Nilanjan Sen & Emre Unlu, 2009. "An International Analysis of Dividend Payment Behavior," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3‐4), pages 496-522, April.
    20. Suzanne J. Konzelmann & Frank Wilkinson & Neil Conway, 2007. "Corporate Governance and Employment Relations," Working Papers wp355, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:22:p:9475-:d:444985. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.