Ivan Tchotourian

Is Corporate CSR Reporting an Expression of 'Law’s Being' or of Lobbying? How Much Power Does Law Really Have? Debates and Criticism Around the Latest French Reform

This study seeks to improve our understanding of how business interests can influence the making of legislation in the specific sector of corporate law and corporate social responsibility (CSR). We want to make the public aware of the legal limits of CSR reporting flowing from the way companies and policy makers are linked through lobbying. This paper is based on a critical study of the new requirement concerning corporate non-financial reporting (Commercial Code Article L. 225-102-1 and the draft decree) and on the debates following the 12 July 2010 adoption of new French Act No. 2010-788, which defines national commitments to the environment. France did not hesitate to take a bold position through the content of Commercial Code Article L. 225-102-1. While this new article strengthened the opening of French companies to environmental and societal issues, the lobbying with respect to the draft decree has curtailed the legislator’s great ambitions and undermined the promising reflections on CSR which emerged during the Grenelle process. French legislators have stumbled in their efforts to orient companies with respect to exercising power on behalf of their stakeholders. New Article L. 225-102-1 amends the Commercial Code and aims both to extend the reach of annual non-financial reporting on the consequences of companies’ activities with respect to the environment and to ensure the pertinence of such reporting. Nevertheless, the discussions on the draft decree reveal the gap between, on one hand, companies’ claims to be willing to assume “more CSR” and, on the other hand, their lobbying. The time is ripe to integrate the new political role of private business in regulation.

When CSR Drives New Corporate Governance: Does the Latest French Law Reform (the ‘Grenelle 2 Law’) Confirm the End of ‘Business as Usual’?

The worldwide financial crisis that was unleashed in 2007-2008 occurred at a time of many challenges in the transformation of the economic and social system. Faced with a critical situation with dimensions (including the economy, society, food supply, environment and energy supply) that are proliferating, accumulating and/or intersecting, what role should be entrusted to legal instruments to find a way out of this crisis in meaning and utopian ideals? (Laidi, 1994) This kind of problem is all the more acute since legal practitioners take on communication and mediation roles in conflict-ridden societies (Farjat, 2010), and the legal system is used on the anthropological level to bring us closer to justice in contemporary societies and the world (Supiot, 2005) … justice that the crisis has shown to be a pressing need and that has become a priority (Fraser, 2005; Nagel, 2005).

Investors, Investment Funds and New French Law: The Clouded Crystal Ball – Is There Really More Power to Promote CSR?

The objective of this paper is to present and discuss the new French requirements related to socially responsible investment (SRI), and provide reflections on the potential and limits of regulating SRI. We summarize the consequences of new Monetary and Financial Code Article L. 533-22-1 and the related decree, which have created new obligations for fund portfolio managers. This paper is based on a critical study of the new requirement concerning disclosure by asset management companies: Article L. 533-22-1 of the Monetary and Financial Code and its implementing decree, enacted on January 31, 2012. This paper goes back over the debates following the July 12, 2010 adoption of new French Act No. 2010-788. Our method leads us to observe that France has tried to design a new approach to investment funds in order to favour environmental and societal issues. While the French choice is ambitious and consequently must be seen as significant, the new requirements, which blend “hard law” and transparency, unfortunately raise many questions. New Monetary and Financial Code Article L. 533-22-1 expands the non-financial concerns that asset managers have to take into account. The legislation recognizes that financial investment has an impact on society and the environment, and tries to orient that impact to socially productive ends. Nevertheless, the development of French hard law remains isolated, and serious questions have to be asked about its impact: do these French texts make financial asset managers the potential drivers of change in promoting SRI?