The world faces a complex convergence of social and ecological crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, resource scarcity, human rights violations, rising inequality and societal instability. The United Nations adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for ‘the future of humanity and of our planet’, calling on business to contribute to solving these pressing challenges. Yet business in aggregate is a driver of the current convergence of crises and the discussion of how to promote sustainable business is therefore high up also on the agenda of the European Union (EU). The EU increasingly shows recognition of the need for regulatory initiatives to promote the integration of sustainability into European business, resonating with the EU’s high-level commitment to sustainability.
About this lecture
In this lecture, Professor Beate Sjåfjell will draw on over a decade of multijurisdictional comparative analysis to identify barriers to the contribution of business to sustainability – and explain why company law is a key to mitigating these barriers and realizing the potential of business in the transition to sustainability. Building on the EU-funded project Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade (SMART, 2016-2020), Professor Sjåfjell will go on to outline how she and her colleagues have proposed concretely the ways in which sustainability could be integrated into company law She will also connect this with the ongoing discussions on sustainability due diligence.
This lecture has come about through a collaboration between the University of Oslo’s Company Law Group and Nyenrode Business University, designed for students in the Oslo master class on company law (JUS5801), for which Professor Sjåfjell is responsible, and Nyenrode’s MBA students under Professor Tineke Lambooy’s leadership. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion – and the event is open for all interested.
Suggested reading before the lecture
B. Sjåfjell, ‘Reforming EU Company Law to Secure the Future of European Business, European Company and Financial Law Review, vol. 18, no. 2, 2021, pp. 190-217, https://doi.org/10.1515/ecfr-2021-0009 (open access, but if there are any access issues, the preprint version is also available on SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3797685)
Presentation
See Beate Sjåfjells powerpoint presentation (in .pdf)
Watch the lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io-63qUMU94