The development of judicial review has been one of law's great growth industries for more than a quarter of a century. It is the public bodies whose activities are routinely subjected to judicial scrutiny which have felt the effects of judicial review most keenly. There has also been a trend in recent years towards judicial review of private bodies whose activities include a public aspect. This has meant a growing awareness,in industry and commerce, of the potential for review of regulatory decisions. In light of the growing importance of this branch of public law, the LSE and Brick Court Chambers decided jointly to host a series of seminars out of which this book has developed. In this important new book expert academics and practitioners (some of them lawyers working in regulated industries) analyse the origins and modern growth of judicial review in the commercial context and attempt to analyse the way in which the law may develop in the future.

Multinational Enterprises and the Law is the only comprehensive, contemporary, and interdisciplinary account of the techniques used to regulate multinational enterprises (MNEs) at the national, regional, and multilateral levels. In addition, it considers the effects of corporate self-regulation, and the impact of civil society and community groups upon the development of the legal order in this area. The book has been thoroughly revised and updated for this third edition, making it a definitive reference work for students, researchers, and practitioners of international economic law, business, corporate and commercial law, development studies, and international politics. Split into four parts, the book first deals with the conceptual basis for MNE regulation. It explains the growth of MNEs, their business and legal forms, and the relationship between them and the effects of a globalized economy and society, now increasingly challenged by recently revived nationalist economic policies, upon the evolution of regulatory agendas in the field. In addition, the limits of national and regional jurisdiction over MNE activities are considered, a question that arises throughout the specialized areas of regulation covered in the remainder of the book. Part II covers the main areas of economic regulation, including controls over, and the liberalization of, entry and establishment, tax, company and competition law and the impact of intellectual property rights on technology diffusion and transfer. A specialized chapter on the regulation of multinational banks in the wake of the global financial crisis is new to this edition. Part III introduces the social dimension of MNE regulation covering labour rights, human rights, and environmental issues. Finally, Part IV deals with the contribution of international investment law to MNE regulation and to the control of investment risks, covering the main provisions found in international investment agreements, their interpretation by international tribunals, the process of investor-state arbitration, and how concerns over these developments are leading to reform proposals.