10 THE ITALIAN LAW JOURNAL NOS. 1-2 (2024)
Some Backdrops and Prospective Scenarios About the Emerging ‘Law of Sustainable Business Organizations’
by Maurizio Bianchini The terms ‘sustainability’ and ‘company’ have been progressively used together in our day-to-day talks. Yet – at least at first sight – they may seem at odd with each other. In fact, the future of our planet – and, namely, the future of human and other animal species, of plants, and their respective biodiversity – is heavily (and will increasingly be) impacted by the ways and by the extent we, the people leaving on Earth, will succeed in making these two key notions (and the many, complex, multi-level implications that each of them in turn entails) fully integrated and compatible. On these premises, the essay will try to offer, first, an outline of the current significance of each of these two expressions; and then, some reasons why their necessary combination would represent one of the current major challenges of contemporary business organizations laws around the globe. The work argues that an emerging legal field of interdisciplinary research and teaching, that could be labeled the ‘Law of Sustainable Business Organizations’, seems to address this goal, taking up this jigsaw of legal and non-legal ESG-related topics, from the specific standpoint of the incorporated firms’ typical structures and functions. The gradient of sustainability of the modern, for-profit, company vis-à-vis the many, interconnected ESG-related issues is alimenting this multidisciplinary research field, that – albeit concentrated in the business law area – could be fully understood by adopting a holistic approach; and that calls, inter alia, for intergovernmental coordination. Attaining for-profit business organizations’ full ESG risk compliance would be the result of a sophisticated ‘alchemy’ of both regulatory and voluntary approaches, that is, of hard law (and often mandatory provisions) and soft law (and often optional) rules to be applied using the proportionality principle. Hence, finding a viable trade-off between ESG-related problems and market freedom represents the main challenge the Law of Sustainable Business Organizations ought to face in the following decade. DOI 10.23815/2421-2156.ITALJ ISSN 2421-2156
