Corporate responsibility in tackling environmental harm: Lost in the regulatory maze?

Razzaque, Jona

Abstract

Environmental harm and corporate responsibility are increasingly being linked. While a number of approaches and techniques such as market instruments and enforcement are explored in the environmental, criminal and human rights law at the international level, the question remains as to whether there is any scope for the loosely defined concept of corporate responsibility to impose direct but non-binding obligations on corporations in an attempt to curb environmental harm. The enforcement theory of regulation promotes hierarchical policing, the hegemony of neo-liberalism offers a certain level of voluntarism in the law, and the community managerialism discourse suggests the involvement of the civil society to the enforcement of regulations. With this background, this article explores the cross-fertilisation of laws that deal with corporate harm, the impacts of the delegation of environmental risks to corporate actors and the new trends in regulatory approaches to accommodate corporate responsibility as a regulatory strategy.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 31, 2013
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2014
• Journal: Australiasian Journal of Natural Resources Law and Policy
• Print ISSN: 1320-5323
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 197-231
• Keywords: corporate responsibility, environmental harm, mining, indigenous community, code of conduct, regulation, participation
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/939965
• Publisher URL: http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=204748904790967;res=IELHSS
• Related Public URLs: http://search.informit.com.au/browseJournalTitle;res=IELHSS;issn=1320-5323