Corporate Social Responsibility Rephrased as Risk: Fiduciary Duties and Climate Change in a Shifting Legal Landscape

We are living in a climate emergency. With less than 11 years to mitigate the most catastrophic effects of global warming, calls for greater corporate sustainability are forcing fundamental shifts in how companies compete with one another. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has traditionally been regarded as voluntary practices exercised within the purview of corporate discretion. Now, legal and regulatory frameworks are adapting in response to changing expectations and the saturated arena of CSR scholarship has found new grounding in the law, raising complex legal issues.

In this talk, Dr. Liao will highlight how businesses are facing new legal exposures, with “soft law” standards crystallizing, climate lawsuits on the rise, significant international human rights cases before the courts, and increased governance through contract in global supply chains. Boards are putting their companies at risk if they do not consider the environmental and social impacts of their actions. This shifting legal landscape under our climate emergency poses challenges and new opportunities for industry.

SPEAKER

Dr Carol Liao

Dr. Carol Liao is the Director of the Centre for Business Law and an Assistant Professor at the Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She is also the UBC Sauder Distinguished Scholar of the Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics, UBC Sauder School of Business. Dr. Liao is a past Bertram Scholar of the Institute of Corporate Directors and a former senior associate in the New York Mergers and Acquisitions Group of Shearman & Sterling LLP, a global law firm. An award-winner teacher and widely published scholar, her research focuses on business law, corporate governance, corporate sustainability, and business ethics. She is a Canadian Climate Governance Expert of the Canadian Climate Law Initiative and is currently the principal investigator of a SSHRC Insight Grant-funded project studying the evolution of Canadian corporate law and governance principles from an economic, social, and environmental sustainability lens.

CHAIR

Associate Professor Christopher Chen

SMU School of Law

Note: There is no CPD Point for this seminar