RESOLVING REGULATORY CONFLICTS BY INCORPORATING PRIVATE STANDARDS: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

The fulfilment of international standards established in Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA's) has become a useful tool for Multinational Corporation's aim of improving their public image, since it signalizes to the public a commitment to transparency and sustainability in all their practices. To what extent such MNC's strategy undermines State's capacity to regulate, in an independent manner, activities that might hamper the protection of the environment or the respect of fundamental rights? This paper aims to assess the influence of MNC's on State's regulatory capacity. Departing from the crisis of the traditional concepts of sovereignty and self-determination, the analysis focuses on the difficulties that modern States have in conceiving and enacting regulations on specific issues such as obtaining of prior informed consent in the context of the access to natural resources. Within this framework, the paper introduces a discussion on possible ways to validate the application of private standards and voluntary codes of conduct as a manner to resolve the default of adequate regulation in developing and least developed countries. Such approach is proposed as a mean of avoiding conflicts arising from regulatory defaults that can affect foreign investments. The conclusions support a more cosmopolitan approach to global governance as the only mean of achieving enforcement of the objectives and principles pursued in MEA's.