Volume 14: Issue | Numéro 2 (2019)
Lukas Vanhonnaeker
In Integrating Sustainable Development in International Investment Law: Normative Incompatibility, System Integration and Governance Implications, Professor Manjiao Chi addresses the evolution of international investment law with respect to one specific concept: sustainable development. In particular, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of sustainable development-related concerns raised by the regime of international investment law and it identifies ways in which sustainable development is—insufficiently—taken into account by the regime. Finally, it proposes avenues for the regime to evolve towards a broader inclusion of sustainable development concerns through the incorporation of new substantive and procedural provisions of IIAs.
Kristen van de Biezenbos
Canada’s energy industry and the agencies that regulate it are suffering a crisis of legitimacy. Both are battered by shifting public opinion, opposition from powerful NGOs, a troubled history with many communities and Indigenous groups, and the actions of political parties that consider opposition to oil and gas projects to be central to their platforms. In such an environment, the concept of social licence to operate, or simply social licence, seems more important than ever to the energy industry. This Article argues, however, that it is not the ability or inability to obtain social licence, as the term is currently used, that will allow the fossil fuel industry to maintain some measure of public good will and to lower municipal and provincial resistance to energy projects. That is because, while social licence has some value as a normative concept, it is functionally meaningless. Not only has the term itself been hollowed out by overuse and fluctuating definitions, but what it represents in popular discourse—a broad public acceptance or approval—is probably not achievable. For too long, the national debate over social licence has obscured the very real concerns over the local impacts of energy projects, and this has eroded the trust and support of communities. This Article proposes that the concept of social licence should be understood as descriptive only, and what should matter instead is what measures companies can take to earn that descriptor. This Article also argues that, in order to obtain acceptance from local and community groups and thus to obtain social licence, Canadian energy companies should follow the lead of companies in other jurisdictions and employ community agreements to demonstrate their commitment to responsible resource development and to earn local buy-in for projects.
Le régionalisme social du programme « Better Work Haiti »
Adelle Blackett
Cette traduction met à jour un article déjà publié en anglais en 2015 et soutient que le cadre émergent du régionalisme social offre une base normative permettant d’évaluer si les cadres réglementaires transnationaux expérimentaux sur la gouvernance commerce-travail (« tradelabour governance ») favorisent les approches contre-hégémoniques au développement. Premièrement, cet article propose une brève théorisation du régionalisme social. Deuxièmement, il s’attarde aux caractéristiques particulières des accords commerciaux « Better Factories Cambodge » et « Better Work Haiti ». Il accorde une attention particulière au contexte haïtien ainsi qu’au contenu des rapports de synthèse biannuels du programme Better Work Haiti. Cet article soutient principalement que l’initiative Better Work constitue un exemple prometteur, quoique préliminaire et incomplet, d’un régionalisme social émergent. Je suggère également qu’un espace dialogique à l’échelle internationale pourrait offrir des outils pour relever les défis en apparence insurmontables liés au champ spécifique de l’action collective transnationale, à l’intersection du droit du commerce et du travail.
