Effective Global Regulation

Recent corporate scandals in Enron and Worldcom as well as within the major accountancy companies who audited them have underlined a widespread public anxiety about who regulates whom in the world economy. Many fear that the answer is no-one – globalization makes such regulation impossible. This research program seeks to prove otherwise.

Regulation takes place not just where governments intervene. Private sector initiatives aimed at self-regulation have multiplied rapidly over the last decade. Under rubrics of corporate social responsibility, the UN Global Compact and industry-based codes of good conduct, transnational companies have set out yardsticks against which their activities can be adjudicated.

This program brings together leading experts – both in conceptual analysis and in practical issues of implementation – so as to learn from experiments in regulation in both inter-governmental organizations and in the global private sector. The research will be presented in Oxford in weekly seminar series held at University College, Oxford and chaired by Ngaire Woods. Policy-makers, regulators and leading private sector actors will be invited to participate with academics drawn from political science, economics and management studies.

The objective of the program is to bring together policy-makers, private sector actors, and academics in a constructive discussion about how better to manage the challenges of globalization and global regulation. Subsequent to the series, the papers will be drawn together as an edited volume with the objective of fostering a wider academic and policy debate.