This chapter appears in the Research handbook on corporate legal responsibility edited by Stephen Tully.

The ever-important topic of corporate legal responsibility is deconstructed into many multifaceted components in this fascinating Handbook, which systematically examines each in turn and describes the contemporary legal position.

Intensified economic globalisation has had positive and negative effects. It has left nation states struggling to deal with the negative fall-out. National regulation against abuses has, however, proven increasingly ineffective, especially since companies have the freedom to move their hazardous activities to under-regulated areas.