The Boundaries of Corporations’ Responsibility

UCL - ECGI Biennial Law and Ethics Symposium

The Boundaries of Corporations’ Responsibility

  • 10 November 2023
  • University College London

UCL - ECGI Biennial Law and Ethics Symposium

The Boundaries of Corporations’ Responsibility

Friday, 10 November 2023
08:30 - 17:20 GMT (09:30 - 18:20 CET)
 

Location
University College London, Faculty of Laws
(This was an in-person event and was not be live-streamed.)

Organisers
Iris H-Y Chiu (UCL Faculty of Laws and ECGI)
Ernest Lim (National University of Singapore)

 

ABOUT THE EVENT

The Symposium’s theme, ‘Boundaries of Corporations’ Responsibility’, related to the debates regarding corporations’ roles in detecting and preventing mischief/harm caused by third parties to which they are related, for example, in the supply chain, or within a corporate group, business network or alliance. These mischiefs or harms relate to labour/human rights abuses in supply chains, harms to community/environment in relation to climate change, conflict minerals, misinformation leading to harms, such as online harms, etc. These risks, which the Symposium terms as ‘boundary risks’, often take place beyond the firm’s structural or control boundaries, but for which the firm may be regarded as having some extent of responsibility.

Pertinent legal frameworks relating to corporations’ ‘boundary risks’ include mandatory corporate due diligence duties, criminal legislation and public enforcement, civil enforcement and corporate liability, including enterprise liability, and the soft law/best practices relating to corporations’ own risk and reputational management. The theoretical debates regarding corporations’ ‘boundary risks’ have often focused on how a corporation is conceived, its purpose/s and private or public orientations. These debates are challenging to reconcile and have deep roots in political and economic ideology. Despite ideological contests, policymakers may make pragmatic choices in relation to corporate law and corporate governance reforms to redesignate corporations’ governance capacity over third parties. The Symposium wishes to focus on the potential ‘shapes and shifts’ for corporate law as doctrine and practice, the implications for corporate advisory work, general counsel, and corporate compliance practice.

This was a one-day Symposium, held at Bentham House, UCL Faculty of Laws, on 10 November 2023.

For any queries, please get in touch with Iris H-Y Chiu, Professor of Corporate Law and Financial Regulation, UCL Faculty of Laws, at hse-yu.chiu@ucl.ac.uk.

Information

Address:
UCL Faculty of Laws, Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens, London, UK
Contact:
Iris H-Y Chiu
UCL Faculty of Laws and ECGI

Friday, November 10 2023 | 08:15 GMT

08:15

Registration and pre-conference coffee and tea

08:45

Keynote lecture | The Government Controlling Shareholder as a Fiduciary: Implications for Climate Change Management and Litigation

Speakers:
Back to full programme

Keynote lecture | The Government Controlling Shareholder as a Fiduciary: Implications for Climate Change Management and Litigation

Time:
08:45h

Speakers

Conference Documents

Back to full programme

The Rise of Corporate Cross-Entity Liability: Which Doctrine for What Purpose?

Time:
09:50h

Speakers

Discussants

Back to full programme

Contract Governance in the Network Economy: Implications for Corporate Responsibility

Time:
10:25h

Speakers

Conference Documents

11:00

Coffee break

Back to full programme

The Brussels Effect And The Extraterritoriality of Delaware Corporate Law

Time:
11:10h

Speakers

Discussants

Conference Documents

11:45

Accountability in the EU for Corporate Human Rights and Environmental Harm: A Tale of Two Systems or Non-Identical Twins

Speakers:
Discussant:
12:20

How to Crowd in Intrinsic Corporate Motivation for Human Rights Due Diligence by Means of Corporate Sanctions?

Discussant:
13:00

Lunch

14:35

The Boundaries of Corporation's Responsibility Through a Practical Lens – A Meta-Study of Civil Liability Lawsuits against Companies for Human Rights Violations and Environmental Harm

Discussant:
15:10

Frontrunners vs Free Riders? Mapping the Institutional Implementation of Human Rights Due Diligence in France and the Netherlands

Speakers:
Caitlin W Cerqua
Discussant:
15:45

Coffee break

Back to full programme

States v Corporations

Time:
16:35h

Speakers

Discussants

Conference Documents

17:15

Closing Remarks

Speakers

Presentations

Back to all presentations

Welcome remarks

Time:
08:40h

Speakers

Keynote lecture | The Government Controlling Shareholder as a Fiduciary: Implications for Climate Change Management and Litigation

Back to all presentations

Keynote lecture | The Government Controlling Shareholder as a Fiduciary: Implications for Climate Change Management and Litigation

Time:
08:45h

Speakers

Conference Documents

Back to all presentations

Session 1 | Chaired by

Time:
11:56h

Speakers

Corporate Liability for Environmental Law: A Tale of Three Dislocations

The Rise of Corporate Cross-Entity Liability: Which Doctrine for What Purpose?

Back to all presentations

The Rise of Corporate Cross-Entity Liability: Which Doctrine for What Purpose?

Time:
09:50h

Speakers

Discussants

Back to all presentations

Contract Governance in the Network Economy: Implications for Corporate Responsibility

Time:
10:25h

Speakers

Conference Documents

Back to all presentations

Session 2 | Chaired by

Time:
11:56h

Speakers

The Brussels Effect And The Extraterritoriality of Delaware Corporate Law

Back to all presentations

The Brussels Effect And The Extraterritoriality of Delaware Corporate Law

Time:
11:10h

Speakers

Discussants

Conference Documents

Accountability in the EU for Corporate Human Rights and Environmental Harm: A Tale of Two Systems or Non-Identical Twins

How to Crowd in Intrinsic Corporate Motivation for Human Rights Due Diligence by Means of Corporate Sanctions?

Back to all presentations

Session 3 | Chaired by

Time:
11:56h

Speakers

Human Rights Abuses in Global Supply Chains: What Were the Legal Consequences From Past Scandals?

The Boundaries of Corporation's Responsibility Through a Practical Lens – A Meta-Study of Civil Liability Lawsuits against Companies for Human Rights Violations and Environmental Harm

Frontrunners vs Free Riders? Mapping the Institutional Implementation of Human Rights Due Diligence in France and the Netherlands

Caitlin W Cerqua
Back to all presentations

Session 4 | Chaired by

Time:
11:56h

Speakers

Back to all presentations

States v Corporations

Time:
16:35h

Speakers

Discussants

Conference Documents