Private Governance and Public Authority
Regulating Sustainability in a Global Economy

Develops a new theory of public regulatory interventions in private sustainability governance based on policymaking in the European Union.

Stefan Renckens (Author)

9781108490474, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 April 2020

335 pages, 2 b/w illus. 12 tables
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.2 cm, 0.6 kg

'As a dizzying number of products are being labeled as sustainable or fair, some observers have hoped that governments will step in to reduce the confusion. Stefan Renckens has produced a compelling account of when governments are likely to intervene or stay on the sidelines, based on a study of EU policymaking and with broad implications for the study of private governance.' Tim Bartley, Professor of Sociology, Washington University in St. Louis, and author of Rules without Rights: Land, Labor, and Private Authority in the Global Economy

At a time of significant concern about the sustainability of the global economy, businesses are eager to display responsible corporate practices. While rulemaking for these practices was once the prerogative of states, businesses and civil society actors are increasingly engaged in creating private rulemaking instruments, such as eco-labeling and certification schemes, to govern corporate behavior. When does a public authority intervene in such private governance and reassert the primacy of public policy? Renckens develops a new theory of public-private regulatory interactions and argues that when and how a public authority intervenes in private governance depends on the economic benefits to domestic producers that such intervention generates and the degree of fragmentation of private governance schemes. Drawing on European Union policymaking on organic agriculture, biofuels, fisheries, and fair trade, he exposes the political-economic conflicts between private and public rule makers and the strategic nature of regulating sustainability in a global economy.

1. Introduction: public-private governance interactions
2. Explaining public interventions in private governance
3. Organic agriculture
4. Biofuels
5. Fair trade
6. Fisheries
7. Evaluating public interventions in private governance
Appendix. Interviews
Endnotes
References
Index.

Subject Areas: International law [LB], Business studies: general [KJB], Political economy [KCP], International relations [JPS]