Inside the Velvet Glove: Sustaining Private Regulatory Institutions Through Hollowing and Fortifying

The forces that threaten to break apart private regulatory institutions are well known, but the forces that sustain them are not. Through a longitudinal inductive study of the Toward Sustainable Mining (TSM) program in the Canadian mining industry, we demonstrate how private regulatory institutions are sustained by strategically manipulating different aspects of an institution’s stringency. Our findings show how shifts in external conditions decreased benefits of participation for firms, triggering institutional destabilization. We demonstrate how the interdependent mechanisms of hollowing—actions that ratchet down aspects of stringency associated with high compliance costs—and fortifying—actions that ratchet up aspects of stringency associated with low compliance costs—worked together to stabilize the institution by rebalancing the competing pressures that underpin it. However, these same mechanisms can hinder the ability of these institutions to substantively address the targeted issues, even as they become more stringent in some areas. Our study advances research on private regulation by showing how different aspects of stringency can be simultaneously ratcheted up and ratcheted down to sustain private regulatory institutions. Further, in positioning institutional stability as an ongoing negotiation, we elucidate the key custodial role of governing organizations like trade associations in institutional maintenance.

The Transformation of Global Intellectual Property Protection

This chapter traces the transformation of global intellectual property protection. The classical Convention regime, epitomised by the Paris Convention protecting industrial property and the Berne Convention protecting copyright, dominated the international IP scene for about a century. Other norm sets have become relevant for IP more recently. These often strengthen IP rights or grant them complementary protection and include international investment agreements (IIAs), predominantly in the form of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and investment chapters in trade treaties; the protection of property ownership as a fundamental right; private regulation of IP; and IP-specific counter-norms. Ultimately, this transformation of global IP law necessitates a broadening of the constitutional discourses relevant for IP. Constitutional pluralism, new constitutionalism, and societal constitutionalism represent the main currents of such global constitutional discourses.

Raising the Bar: Values-Driven Niche Creation in U.S. Bean-to-Bar Chocolate

We examine how entrepreneurs might build a viable, values-driven niche. Extant templates for niche creation typically employed in moral markets depend on instrumentally rational logics that privilege economic ends such as profitability and efficiency. Entrepreneurs seeking to construct a nascent niche whose purpose and objectives include the amelioration of social ills, however, may find such templates inadequate. Using the emergence of the U.S. bean-to-bar chocolate niche, through which entrepreneurs attempt to address the social and environmental shortcomings of conventional chocolate production, we demonstrate that constructing an alternative model for niche creation is feasible. Most bean-to-bar entrepreneurs deliberately opted out of extant private regulation initiatives, developing instead alternative encompassing, values-driven sourcing and cooperative relationships, which we term collaborative governance. This is enacted throughout the niche by promoting shared values, best practices, and transparency and is supported by strategic meaning-making work to cultivate customers. Together, these three values-driven strategies form a novel template of niche creation based not on cognitive repositioning or exploiting exogenous change within existing structures and institutions, but on a reconceptualization of how markets might work to support the implementation of nonmarket goals. Based on our mixed-methods analysis, we find that, instead of hoping to accomplish nonmarket goals through established market structures, entrepreneurs built a niche centered on the achievement of specific social goals. Our findings suggest that to understand the strategies supporting emergent socially oriented markets, researchers must explore the intersections of values, entrepreneurial motivations, and operational complexities.

The Place of Voluntary Standards in Managing Social and Environmental Risks in Global Value Chains

Under the notion of human rights due diligence (HRDD), firms are under a responsibility to account for the social and environmental impact connected to their operations across global value chains. This responsibility intersects with the sphere of operation of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS), which certify production against certain social and environmental criteria. With mandatory European rules on HRDD in the making, the question arises regarding the extent of alignment of VSS with HRDD notions and, consequently, the possibility for this form of transnational private regulation to complement European Union (EU) HRDD legislation. After presenting the regulatory effects of HRDD in global value chains and its current transposition in EU instruments, this contribution examines the relationship between private standards and HRDD. By delving into the substantive requirements and policies of several schemes certifying agricultural commodities, this paper studies the extent to which they manage social and environmental risks in global value chains and the possible support they provide to firms subject to the upcoming HRDD obligations.

“Censorship-free” platforms: Evaluating content moderation policies and practices of alternative social media

Following the development and implementation of mainstream social media platforms’ election-related speech policies, a renewed wave of criticism emerged from the U.S. ideological right. Several months before the 2020 U.S. presidential election, conservative politicians, pundits, and “patriots” alleged that their speech was being censored by “Big Tech.” This resulted in right-leaning influencers, and many of their followers, migrating to alternative online platforms to avoid moderation. Alternative social media, such as Parler, Bitchute, Gab, and Gettr, describe themselves as unmoderated hubs for “free speech,” signalling an invitation for users to voice everything from unpopular opinions, to misinformation, to hate speech. Yet when pushed by technology infrastructure platforms like Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store to address missing or substandard moderation practices, “alt-tech” platforms were forced to create or adapt ad hoc, often minimalistic, content moderation policies.Our research explores and evaluates these policies in comparison to mainstream platforms, and analyzes how moderation policies interact with the ideological framework asserted at an alternative platform’s nascence. Our work provides necessary insight into the potential motivations for one potential source of internet platform oversight. With few immediately available regulatory options, assessing the viability of alternatives is crucial. This is particularly true as severe legislative gridlock stalls meaningful reform to the federal law perhaps capable of improving platforms’ moderation practices. Because private regulation appears to be the most immediate solution to address new breeding grounds for mis- and disinformation, inquiry into alternative platforms’ adoption and enforcement of moderation policies is needed. Our paper concludes with questions for future research into the efficacy of alternative platforms’ policy implementation; it is imperative to distinguish legitimate moderation from mere shells constructed to retain profit in parallel with ideological posturing.

REGULATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Social media platforms are mainly characterised by private regulation. However, their direct and indirect impact on society has become such (fake news, hate speech, incitement to terrorism, data protection breaches, impact on the viability of professional journalism) that private regulatory mechanisms in place (often opaque and not transparent) seem to be inadequate. In the present paper, I would first address the problem of the legal classification of these services (media service provider vs. intermediary service provider), since the answer to this question is a prerequisite for any state intervention. I would then present the regulatory initiatives (with a critical approach) at the EU and national level which might shape the future of ‘social media platform’ regulation.

2021 Handbook of Florida Water Regulation: Private Regulation

This handbook is designed to provide a summary of the principal federal and state (Florida) laws that directly or indirectly relate to agriculture. Because these laws are subject to constant revision, portions of the handbook could become outdated at any time. The reader should use it as a means to determine areas in which to seek more information and as a brief directory of agencies that can help answer more specific questions.