Governments and the markets in Europe have traditionally failed to adequately address environmental and ecological issues such as the access to clean and drinkable water and pollution of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. However, social enterprises across Europe have demonstrated that social entrepreneurship can play a role in providing creative and efficient solutions to social, environmental and ecological problems while employing inclusive and participatory governance models, which involve stakeholders and the affected society. Research in this chapter focuses on social enterprises in the Netherlands, which country also suffers from ecological porblems. Through a case study analysis of the Dutch social enterprise Dopper, which organisation aims to contribute to solving the problem of plastic waste, creating awareness about this problem as well as about access to drinking water, the contribution of value creation is analysed. Against the backdrop of a discussion concerning the emergence of social enterprises in the Netherlands despite the existence of a supportive legal framework, this chapter also illustrates examples of legal and participatory governance structures employed in Dutch social enterprises’ organisational structure and function. These can serve as illustrations of sustainable business structures in the Netherlands and in Europe.

During the last decade, discussion on shareholder activism concentrated on hedge funds, some seeing them as agents for passive institutional shareholders, bridging the separation of ownership and control, others believing their short-term value-maximization interests differing fundamentally from those of other shareholders. Some have seen hopes for long-term activism in institutional shareholders such as pension funds. In the European Union, activism is seen positively, encouraging proposals to enhance shareholders’ rights against the boards’ discretion. The purpose of this chapter is to focus on institutional investor activism and its impact on both their ultimate beneficiaries and their target companies, and how investors could be incentivised to more sustainable behaviour in their activism. Albeit the focus is on the European Union, institutional investors are global. A broader perspective including North America and Asia is therefore taken. The most important impact of institutional activism is arguably normative, causing changes in corporate governance. Specific attention is therefore given to governance questions.

This case study aims to investigate whether and in what ways the relations between the EU and its Member States and South Korea can be used to strengthen opportunities to appropriately regulate and remedy human rights violations in the Korean electronics industry. This study first determines the relevant social forces and historical factors in Korea. This is an essential key to a contextualised understanding of how so-called electronics chaebols are structured. Afterwards, the relevant legal commitments in the Framework and free trade agreements between the EU and Korea are discussed. These agreements lay a foundation for deeper transnational social network relations. A landmark dispute about the freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining in Korea under the Free Trade Agreement is analysed. Finally, this case study determines to which extent people in Korea can use justice institutions when they allege that their rights have been infringed by electronics corporations. All relevant mechanisms are evaluated. An arbitration case between the Korean NGO Sharps and Samsung is discussed. Ten Korean experts have been interviewed to write this case study.

The main contribution of this book lies in narrowing the existing research gap on the accountability of transnational corporations from emerging and developing states. In addition, it provides a new perspective on the widely documented poor track record of EU Member States in terms of holding ‘their’ corporate nationals, which are directly competing with these corporations for the same ‘share of wallet’ in the globalised marketplace, accountable. Any legal study of a level playing field requires the study of mandatory requirements as a matter of regulatory compliance. This book thus needs to study ‘hard law obligations’ in business and human rights. It assesses how regulation (in laws and trade agreements) and civil judicial remediation in the EU and its Member States function in relation to corporations from emerging and developing states in our globalised world. This book relies on two models of international law-making: constructivism and rationalism.

This case study aims to investigate whether and in what ways the EU and its Member States can support Kenya to strengthen opportunities to appropriately regulate and remedy human rights violations in the floriculture industry. This industry is almost exclusively occupied by corporations with Kenyan, European and Indian owners. Most of the flowers grown on Kenyan farms are sold in Europe. After discussing the Kenyan floriculture industrys history, this chapter considers the relevant legal commitments in the post-Cotonou agreement and the Economic Partnership Agreement between the East African Community and the EU. According to the constructivist literature, these agreements could serve as a platform through which Kenyan and transnational civil society can help to contribute to the creation of a ‘thick’ stakeholder consensus regarding human rights. Finally, this case study analyses whether people in Kenya can use justice institutions when their rights are violated by flower farms. All relevant mechanisms are evaluated, but it is concluded that capacity development of civil judicial remediation has the most potential. Fourteen Kenyan experts have been interviewed to write this case study.