Overview

Chapter 1 showed that the globalization of business regulation is a process with a long history. Roman legal principles continue to be transmitted through our regulatory traditions even though Roman armies have long ceased marching. In this process both state and non-state actors strive to establish principles of their choosing using the mechanisms at their disposal. In each of our case studies (Chapters 7-19) we present globalization as a contest of principles - a contest, for example, between the principle of harmonization and the principle of national sovereignty. Our study identifies a number of recurrently important principles (summarized in Chapter 21) and mechanisms (summarized in Chapter 22) in global business regulation. The contest among actors (summarized in Chapter 20) is unequal. Actors like the US can mobilize coercion mechanisms that are not available to weaker actors like community groups. Actors with large markets can impose trade sanctions. When staring at defeat in one international forum, they can shift the contest to a more favourable forum (Chapter 24). Yet there is one mechanism that weaker actors can use to shape regulatory outcomes - the mechanism of modelling (Chapter 25). Through devising and proliferating alternative models of regulation, the weak create opportunities for themselves to change existing regulatory orders.

In the thirteen case studies in this book no one actor appears as master of the world. Similarly, there is no master mechanism of globalization. Instead, there are webs of influence (Chapter 23). We divide these webs of influence into webs of coercion and dialogic webs. We find that actors prefer to work through webs of dialogue rather than webs of coercion. Understanding the different strands that make up these webs is fundamental to accomplishing global regulatory change. With this understanding, strategies can be developed for intervening in the webs. Successful interventions are not, as our case studies demonstrate, confined to powerful actors. Dialogic webs offer individuals the possibility of micro action to secure macro change. We do not claim that possibilities for micro action pervade dialogic webs, merely that these webs sometimes allow individuals to bring about globalization sequences that culminate in global regulatory change.