Introduction

Companies play an increasingly important role in the global economy. With this growth has emerged a strong view that companies share in responsibilities traditionally assigned to governments – such as those relating to human rights and the environment (Ambachtsheer 2011). A wide range of norms, codes of conduct and conventions have emerged to translate this broadening acceptance of extended corporate responsibility into policy and practice (see Appendix 30.1).

Traditionally, conventions were developed by multilateral institutions and targeted for ratification by national governments. More recently, a broader range of stakeholders have become involved in developing and supporting conventions under the espoused benei ts of “multi-stakeholder processes” (Vallejo and Hauselmann 2004). This has resulted in a shift from legislative foundations towards the emergence of “soft law” approaches to regulating behavior, tending to take the form of nonbinding and voluntary codes of conduct. Multi-stakeholder processes have gained their standing as valid mechanisms to develop and implement codes of conduct in part because they include input from a broad range of stakeholders in their design, implementation and oversight. This chapter focuses on one stakeholder which is largely absent from the analysis of these processes – investors.