The Environmental and Social Sustainability of Companies in the Proposal of Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (from the «Unsustainable Lightness » of the Corporate Purpose to the «Mandatory Sustainability» of Due Diligence)

On February 23, 2022, the European Commission presented a proposal for a directive on due diligence, on corporate civil liability and on the duties of directors with particular attention to environmental and social sustainability (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, hereinafter CSDDD). The objective of this work has been to thoroughly analyse the CSDDD to understand, first of all, the integrations with other European legal measures that also have as their object due diligence and to identify, therefore, the specificities of the objectives that the CSDDD intends to achieve and of the actions that companies are obliged to undertake. The examination of the regulations relating to the due diligence linked to environmental sustainability and human rights, in the context of the CSDDD, focused, albeit only sideways, on the ongoing debate on the evolution of the concept of «purpose» of the company considering that the sustainability we are talking about involves many interests including those of the stakeholders. Therefore, in carrying out the discussion, the recent positions of the doctrine and of some legislators and trade associations were also taken into consideration, with regard to listed companies, regarding the purpose of the companies and how the latter can be modified in order to consider environmental and social sustainability within the interest of the company.