The Framework: Legalization as Hard Rules for States?

Abstract

While many recent studies in IR examine the emergence of global rules for corporations, this book focuses on the legal quality of these rules (see McBarnet et al. 2007). And while many researchers depart from the assumption that corporate regulation is increasingly moving towards the private or transnational sphere, this book analyzes corporate regulation emanating from the intergovernmental arena and the impact of purely private regulation upon it. What is the effect of industry self-regulation on the general trend to a ‘legalization’ of world politics (Goldstein et al. 2000)? The following sections will develop a theoretical framework for investigating the degree to which intergovernmental rules for corporate behaviour are subject to legalization.