Sustainable Business, Finance & Circular Economy

The elective introduces a research-based concept of sustainability and the emerging multilevel framework of sustainability-oriented law and policy (on international, regional and domestic levels), as the context for an analysis of the role of the EU internally and as a global actor. The course proceeds with an analysis of the position of sustainability in the overarching objectives in the EU Treaties and the EU Treaty rules seeking to ensure policy coherence in EU law, including horizontal integration provisions, as well as in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. This introductory part forms the basis for an in-depth analysis of three areas of EU business-related law and policy where the EU is seeking to integrate sustainability: business, finance and circular economy.

Business: Company law and corporate governance is the core of the regulatory infrastructure of the dominant form for organising business: the company. This form is therefore what the course will concentrate on, after a brief introduction to the variety of business forms and their relevance in the course context. There is an inherent tension in law’s focus on the legal form of the individual company as a creature of national law and the cross-border organization of business through global value chains. In the EU, there is an increasing and unprecedented interest in discussing the regulation of business with several new initiatives being proposed adopted in the 2020s.

Contributing to the debate on how to regulate companies, is also the international trend of lawsuits against European businesses for alleged harm in their global value chains, challenging established company law principles of limitation of liability. The course will draw on extensive comparative company law and corporate governance research as a basis for analysing and discussing these developments in the EU.

Finance: Financial market law and bank regulation are key areas to shift finance towards sustainability. Informed by the emerging recognition of the financial risks of unsustainability, the EU’s Sustainable Finance Initiative of 2018 has opened up a previously much siloed field to sustainability analysis. The Initiative was quickly followed up through the adoption of several legislative instruments, including the Disclosure Regulation of 2019 and the Taxonomy Regulation of 2020. The emphasis of this field is very much on environmental aspects of sustainability and especially climate, although it also does to some extent engage with social issues.The field has concentrated on financial market law and less on key aspects of banking, especially relevant for the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As a part of the regulatory analysis is a number of complaints under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, as well as court cases, against investors and banks. The course will present and analyse this field and its relevance for channelling private as well as public capital to sustainability and for governance changes towards sustainable business.

Circular economy: Circular economy is at the centre of the EU’s approach to moving away from linear and unsustainable modes of production and consumption and towards circular and sustainable business models. The EU’s 2015 and 2020 Circular Economy Packages emphasise holistic approaches, including product lifecycle perspective and improving the efficiency of production and waste management. Also in this field, there has been much emphasis on environmental issues and very little on social issues. Further, there is much emphasis on increasing efficiency of production, and limiting the wasteful use of resources, while not so much on a broad approach to shifting towards sufficiency in material consumption. Through the 2020 Package, there is an increasing focus on broadening the sectorial scope and empowering private consumers as well as public procurers, which is followed up under the 2022 Sustainable Product Policy. The course will analyse and discuss the current developments in Circular Economy policy and law and the extent to which they serve to integrate sustainability in European business.

The course will explore the interconnections and possible gaps and incoherencies between these three areas, their interconnections with and influence on international law and policy developments as well as their implementations in Member State laws and policies. The course will conclude with a course-room discussion of the state-of-the-art of ensuring sustainability through EU law, through the lens of the research-based concept of sustainability as an overarching societal goal.

For students enrolled in Rettsvitenskap (jus) (master - 5 år): Have you considered a specialization as part of your degree? The course is part of the profile Selskap, transaksjon og finans.

This subject is taught at Master 's level. The subject is also taught at Bachelor's level (10 ECTS credits), see JUR1525.