This essay explores the dynamics of regulatory change associated with the effort to develop new forms of transnational business governance associated with civil business regulation and corporate social responsibility. It begins by defining civil regulation, describing its growth and placing its development, structure and purposes in a broader historical and institutional context. The second section of the paper explains the development of civil regulation as a response to the shortcomings of international global and national governance of global firms and markets. The ‘demonstration effects’ associated with these policy failures have in turn created a demand for the development of new regulatory vehicles to control the social conduct of international firms. The third section of the paper describes how various policy entrepreneurs, led by NGOs and often supported by some national governments and international organizations, have, through a complex process of conflict and cooperation, persuaded some firms to participate in and/or support the development of new ways of governing global firms.

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Publication/Copyright: Princeton University Press