Company Law and Sustainability

This investigation of the barriers to and opportunities for promoting environmental sustainability in company law provides an indepth comparative analysis of company law regimes across the world. The social norm of shareholder primacy is the greatest barrier to progress, and this recognition also helps explain why voluntary action by companies and investors alone is insufficient. By deconstructing the myth that shareholder primacy has a legal basis and challenging the economic postulates on which the mainstream corporate governance debate is based, Company Law and Sustainability reveals the surprisingly large unexplored potential in current company law regimes for companies to reorient themselves towards sustainability. It also suggests possible methods of reforming the existing legal infrastructure for companies and makes an important contribution to the wider debate on how to achieve sustainability.