Book contents
- Board-Shareholder Dialogue
- International Corporate Law and Financial Market Regulation
- Board-Shareholder Dialogue
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- The Dialogue between Corporations and Institutional Investors
- 1 The New Corporate Governance
- 2 Shareholder Voice and Corporate Purpose
- 3 The Purpose of Corporate Purpose Statements
- 4 Systemic Stewardship with Tradeoffs
- 5 Giant Asset Managers, the Big Three, and Index Investing
- 6 Something Old, Something New
- 7 The Perils and Promise of Shareholders as Stakeholder Advocates
- 8 How to Facilitate ESG Investor Engagement
- 9 Emerging ESG-Driven Models of Shareholder Collaborative Engagement
- 10 ESG and Board-Shareholder Engagement in M&A
- 11 How Does Board-Shareholder Engagement Really Work?
- 12 Shareholder Engagement inside and outside the Shareholder Meeting
- 13 The Viability of Blockchain in Corporate Governance
- 14 Shareholder Engagement in East Asia
- 15 Board-Shareholder Engagement and Directors’ Appointments
- 16 Shareholder Proposals and the Debate over Sustainability Disclosure
- 17 Board-Shareholder Engagement and Disclosure Obligations under Corporate Governance Codes
- 18 Board-Shareholder Engagement and Insider Regulation
- 19 Market Soundings Rules
8 - How to Facilitate ESG Investor Engagement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2024
- Board-Shareholder Dialogue
- International Corporate Law and Financial Market Regulation
- Board-Shareholder Dialogue
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- The Dialogue between Corporations and Institutional Investors
- 1 The New Corporate Governance
- 2 Shareholder Voice and Corporate Purpose
- 3 The Purpose of Corporate Purpose Statements
- 4 Systemic Stewardship with Tradeoffs
- 5 Giant Asset Managers, the Big Three, and Index Investing
- 6 Something Old, Something New
- 7 The Perils and Promise of Shareholders as Stakeholder Advocates
- 8 How to Facilitate ESG Investor Engagement
- 9 Emerging ESG-Driven Models of Shareholder Collaborative Engagement
- 10 ESG and Board-Shareholder Engagement in M&A
- 11 How Does Board-Shareholder Engagement Really Work?
- 12 Shareholder Engagement inside and outside the Shareholder Meeting
- 13 The Viability of Blockchain in Corporate Governance
- 14 Shareholder Engagement in East Asia
- 15 Board-Shareholder Engagement and Directors’ Appointments
- 16 Shareholder Proposals and the Debate over Sustainability Disclosure
- 17 Board-Shareholder Engagement and Disclosure Obligations under Corporate Governance Codes
- 18 Board-Shareholder Engagement and Insider Regulation
- 19 Market Soundings Rules
Summary
This chapter explores the legal framework for ESG investor engagement and, in so doing, favours a market-led approach over prescriptive regulatory intervention. I argue that investor initiatives and engagement are and should be the primary tool to promote sustainability orientation in the market. Legislative measures are deemed most effective when empowering investor engagement, enhancing transparency in sustainability criteria, and addressing greenwashing concerns. The need to build coalitions and to convince fellow investors of an initiative can then act as an in-built “filter”, which would help mitigate the pursuit of merely idiosyncratic motives and would give support to only those campaigns that are supported by a majority of investors. In particular, institutionalised investor platforms have emerged over recent years to coordinate investor campaigns and to share costs. Accordingly, I conclude with the policy implication that lawmakers should take a supportive and facilitative approach that supports investor engagement and private ordering. By doing so, static and interventionist legal policies would become less justified.
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- Board-Shareholder DialoguePolicy Debate, Legal Constraints and Best Practices, pp. 242 - 269Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024