As a system of managing environmental and social risk in the sector of large-scale international project finance, the Equator Principles (EPs) have generated increased interest and critical engagement in the private, public, and academic spheres. Particular research in the field of transnational governance is especially concerned with assessing the degree in which private and public actors are revolutionizing the methods and procedures of governance in the wake of the decline of the welfare state, and rise of the post-regulatory state. Social scientists and legal theorists alike have begun analyzing the effects of a shift in the “emphasis of control, to a greater or lesser degree, from traditional bureaucratic mechanisms towards instruments of regulation.” Within this context, the EPs present an opportunity to analyze and assess the structure, procedures and effectiveness of a self-regulatory governance system, voluntarily established by private actors in the international project finance sector, to mitigate social and environmental risks.