Regulating International Business: Beyond Liberalization

by Sol Picciotto (Editor), Ruth Mayne (Editor)

Overview

This timely book points the way towards a new positive regulatory framework for international investment following the failure of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). It examines the flaws in free-market strategies underpinning the recent phase of globalization, in particular drawing out the lessons from the MAI, which was suspended in October 1998. The authors explore an alternative based on a positive regulatory framework for international business aimed at maximizing the positive contribution to development of foreign investment and minimizing its negative social and environmental impacts. The contributors include academics, researchers for non-governmental organizations, and business and trade-union representatives, writing from a combination of economic, legal and political perspectives. The book combines academic analysis with grass-roots and practical experience, and suggests concrete policy proposals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780333776780
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	09/05/1999
Series:	World Economic Policy Series
Edition description:	1999
Pages:	277
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.04(d)

About the Author

DOMINIC AYINE Graduate of the Universities of Legon in Ghana and Michigan at Ann Arbor, USA V. N. BALASUBRAMANYAM Professor of Development Economics, Lancaster University, UK PETRINA FRIDD Project Manager for Socially Responsible Sourcing at Sainsbury Plc STEPHANY GRIFFITH-JONES Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex University, UK BOB HEPPLE, QC Master of Clare College and Professor of Law, University of Cambridge, UK NEIL KEARNEY General Secretary of the Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather-Workers' Federation JENNY KIMMIS Research Assistant at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex University, UK NICK MABEY Head of Economic Policy at the World Wide Fund for Nature-UK PETER MUCHLINSKI The Draper's Professor of Law, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, UK ROBERT O'BRIEN Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Member of the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University, Canada SOL PICCIOTTO Professor of Law, Lancaster University, UK PEDRO ROLFE Staff Member of UNCTAD JESSICA SAINSBURY Project Assistant for Socially Responsible Sourcing at Sainsbury Plc LAWRENCE TSHUMA Programme Legal Counsel at the International Development Law Institute, Rome, Italy JACOB WERKSMAN Managing Director and Senior Lawyer at FIELD (the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development)

Table of Contents

Preface Notes on Contributors Glossary Introduction: What Rules for the World Economy?; S.Picciotto PART I: INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT PROTECTION AND LIBERALIZATION Foreign Direct Investment to Developing Countries; V.Balasubramanyam A Brief History of Business Regulation; P.Muchlinski Defending the Legacy of Rio: The Civil Society Campaign against the MAI; N.Mabey A Critical Assessment of the MAI ; S. Picciotto PART II: BROADENING THE AGENDA The Implications of the MAI for Natural Resource and Land Use; L.Tshuma Improving Investor Accountability; D.Ayine & J.Werksman Transfer of Technology and Competition Policy in the Context of a Possible Multilateral Investment Agreement; P.Roffe Stabilizing Capital Flows to Developing Countries: The Role of Regulation; S.Griffith-Jones Labour Regulation in Internationalized Markets ; B.Hepple PART III: THE INTERACTION OF FORMAL AND INFORMAL REGULATION Voluntary Codes and Labour Standards; N.Kearney The Role of Voluntary Codes of Conduct and Regulation - a Retailer's View; P.Fridd & J.Sainsbury Regulating TNCs: The Role of Voluntary and Governmental Approaches; R.Mayne PART IV: THE POLITICS OF ACCOUNTABILITY NGOs, Global Civil Society and Global Economic Regulation; R.O'Brien Index

Editorial Reviews

'The authors offer a timely and important contribution to the debate on global governance and the role of international business.' - Jane Nelson, Director, Policy and Research, The Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum

'The contributors to this forward-looking volume offer much insight into why regulating international business and foreign direct investment flows increasingly will be front and centre of the public's agenda. Policy-makers and an informed public have to realize that the old ways of thinking about globalization no longer are adequate. The authors explain in an innovative but realistic way how the rules and institutions governing the global economy have to be rethought and a new global order fashioned.' - Daniel Drache, Professor of Political Economy, York University, Toronto, Canada

'Blanket liberalization - a belief in the ability of the market to 'deliver' - is clearly now being called into question. This stimulating book, coming as it does after the MAI debacle, is very welcome and will add a great deal to the arguments we will have to make for a regulatory framework capable of dealing with the issues posed by the impact of globalization.' - Glenys Kinnock, MEP

'An excellent, though critical, response to the MAI...contains innovative solutions to some major problems generated by globablization...[and] many useful insights couched in non-technical prose, on differing approaches to the problem of restraining the more pernicious aspects of a global economy.' - Times Literary Supplement

'Regulating International Business does contain many useful insights, couched in non-technical prose, on differing approaches to the problem of restraining the more pernicious aspects of a global economy.' - Julian Mitchell, Times Literary Supplement

'A collection that pushes out new frontiers in the study of globalization. These essays tackle in a fresh way some of the major policy challenges of our time.' - Professor John Braithwaite, Australian National University

'This is an invaluable and insightful collection of essays on a topic of central importance in world policy. It can be read with illumination and profit by both researchers and policy-makers.' - Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics, Columbia University, USA

From the Publisher

Arguing that increased global economic integration and interdependence needs to be underpinned by a strengthened international regulatory framework, this collection of 14 articles is arranged in four sections addressing a historical and critical evaluation of international investment protection and liberalization; a broader agenda, including the implications of the MAI for use of natural resources and land, improving investor accountability, and labor regulations in international markets; interactions between formal and informal regulations such as the role of voluntary codes of conduct and regulation and corporate codes of conduct; and the politics of accountability. Contributors include international legal, development, economic, policy, and other scholars and foundation leaders. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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