ESG Intermediaries and Corporate Sustainability Convergence

Responses to climate change and other environmental and social sustainability issues implicate two fundamental debates in corporate law. The first concerns the appropriate role and scope of regulation in shaping corporate purpose. The second, closely intertwined with the first, pertains to corporate convergence—namely, the extent to which corporate governance practices should or will align globally. Divergent approaches to sustainable finance regulation across jurisdictions highlight tensions between regulatory harmonization and persistent national differences. The broad, far-reaching, and sometimes controversial implications of sustainability issues for business can only be understood by addressing the corporate purpose and corporate convergence debates in relation to each other.

This presentation addresses a set of protagonists whose influence is under-appreciated in the context of these debates. A diverse array of financial market intermediaries provide financial advice, facilitate information flows, certify and verify investment products, and manage capital assets. By deciding what constitutes a sustainable financial asset—such as assessing whether a company’s sustainability performance meets relevant criteria—these actors, which this presentation refers to as ESG intermediaries, directly and indirectly affect the flow of capital between corporations and asset owners and therefore determine companies’ access to capital.

This event examines the mechanisms through which ESG intermediaries influence corporate sustainability. Park and Weber argue that regulation of ESG intermediaries can strategically leverage the role of these intermediaries, thereby demonstrating how and why corporate sustainability is operationalized at the firm level. Furthermore, adopting a transnational perspective, they explore whether regulation of ESG intermediaries acts as a catalyst of corporate sustainability convergence or, conversely, whether its absence reinforces further divergence in corporate governance practices globally.

Stephen Kim Park is an Associate Professor of Business Law at the University of Connecticut. His research is in the areas of international economic law, corporate social responsibility and accountability, and corporate compliance, with a focus on sustainability, ESG, and human rights issues. He holds a JD from Harvard Law School, a MALD in International Affairs from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a BA in Ethics, Politics, & Economics from Yale University.

Anne-Marie Weber is an Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw. Her research is in the areas of corporate law and financial market regulation, with a focus on sustainability issues. She has received foreign scholarships and research grants from the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, the Polish National Science Centre, the Polish-German Foundation for Science, and the Government of France. She holds an LLM and a PhD in Law from the University of Warsaw and an LLM from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.