Regulating International Business
Beyond Liberalization

Editors: Sol Picciotto, Ruth Mayne





This timely book points the way towards a new positive regulatory framework for international investment following the failure of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). It examines the flaws in free-market strategies underpinning the recent phase of globalization, in particular drawing out the lessons from the MAI, which was suspended in October 1998. The authors explore an alternative based on a positive regulatory framework for international business aimed at maximizing the positive contribution to development of foreign investment and minimizing its negative social and environmental impacts. The contributors include academics, researchers for non-governmental organizations, and business and trade-union representatives, writing from a combination of economic, legal and political perspectives. The book combines academic analysis with grass-roots and practical experience, and suggests concrete policy proposals.

Table of contents (14 chapters)

Introduction: What Rules for the World Economy?

Foreign Direct Investment to Developing Countries

A Brief History of Business Regulation

Defending the Legacy of Rio: the Civil Society Campaign against the MAI

A Critical Assessment of the MAI

Implications of the MAI for Use of Natural Resources and Land

Improving Investor Accountability

Transfer of Technology and Competition Policy in the Context of a Possible Multilateral Investment Agreement

Stabilizing Capital Flows to Developing Countries: the Role of Regulation

Labour Regulation in Internationalized Markets

Corporate Codes of Conduct: the Privatized Application of Labour Standards

The Role of Voluntary Codes of Conduct and Regulation — a Retailer’s View

Regulating TNCs: the Role of Voluntary and Governmental Approaches

NGOs, Global Civil Society and Global Economic Regulation