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The purpose of this paper is to contend that the dominant voluntarism approach to the accountability of transnational corporations (TNCs) is inadequate and not fit-for-purpose. The authors argue for the establishment of an international legal mechanism for securing the accountability of TNCs, particularly in the context of developing countries with notoriously weak governance mechanisms to protect all relevant stakeholders.

The study adopts insights from the fields of management and international law to draw out synergies from particular understandings of corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and international human rights. The challenges to governance in developing countries with regard to securing the accountability of TNCs are illustrated with the Nigerian experience of oil-industry legislation reform.

The specific context of the experiences of developing countries in Africa on the operations of TNCs particularly commends the need and expedience to create an international legal regime for ensuring the accountability of TNCs.

Mainstream research in this area has focused mainly on self and voluntary models of regulation and accountability that have privileged the legal fiction of the corporate status of TNCs. This paper departs from that model to argue for an enforceable model of TNC’s accountability – based on an international mechanism.

This paper aims to examine the growing incidence of judicialisation of politics in Nigeria's democratisation experience against the backdrop of questionable judicial accountability.

The article draws on legal and political theory as well as comparative law perspectives.

The judiciary faces a daunting task in deepening democracy and (re) instituting the rule of law. The formidable challenges derive in part from structural problems within the judiciary, deficient accountability credentials and the complexities of a troubled transition.

Effective judicial mediation of political transition requires a transformed and accountable judiciary.

The article calls attention to the need for judicial accountability as a cardinal and integral part of political transitions.

The purpose of this paper is to identify dimensionality and evaluate effect of corporate human rights social responsibility (CHRSR) on employee job outcomes among three leading Kenya's horticultural exporters based in Naivasha, Kenya.

Exploratory and explanatory survey was utilized on a sample of 450 employees selected using a multistage sampling technique. Structured questionnaire was used to extract both nominal and ordinal data, the latter's items were anchored on a five-point Likert scale. Descriptive, principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple regression was used to analyze the data.

PCA of 32 items representing CHRSR yielded ten components while that of employee job outcomes yielded seven components reflecting the multidimensional nature of the constructs. Results showed that the selected firms have largely satisfied both HR and moral expectations. Regression results showed generally significant effect of CHRSR on employee job outcomes such as employee retention, satisfaction, commitment and pride.

A business case for CHRSR exists. This implies that compliance with the law, adoption of HR-related corporate social responsibility (CSR) is critical in enhancing employee job outcomes and overall organization performance.

The study integrates CSR and HR into CHRSR. It demonstrates its multidimensional nature and utilizes statistical analysis to explore its relationship with employee job outcomes in an African export sector context and argues that CSRHR is more critical in Africa than more regulated contexts.

This paper aims to examine the limitations of promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR) regulation and suggests a model for improving accountability in CSR practices through stakeholder engagement-based inclusive regulation framework that is effective, coherent and responsive.

This conceptual paper uses desk-based research to analyse extant literature on the concept of regulation of CSR by looking at examples, benefits and limitations before proposing a framework for improving CSR regulation.

The paper finds that the system of promoting CSR through self-regulation or introducing prescriptive regulation without sustainable stakeholder engagement is ineffective and inefficient.

The paper is original in its development of a new framework of “Inclusive Regulation” as a strategy for limiting the shortcomings of prescriptive regulation and enhancing self-regulation as CSR tools. It thus contributes to both theoretical and policy perspective in the enhancement of prescriptive and self-regulation in CSR-regulation discourse.

This article aims to explore the central challenges that preclude the attribution of liability to multinational corporations (MNCs) through a contextual analysis of the recent Akpan ruling of the District Court of The Hague. It considers the lack of direct regulation for multinationals at the international level and explores the procedural/substantive hurdles which pervade in the domestic systems of “host” and “home” States, in an exposition of the overall deficit in protection.

The article employs a case-based approach, utilising the judgement of a recent Dutch case concerning environmental damage in Nigeria as a vehicle to discuss parent/subsidiary liability.

The article demonstrates the procedural impediments that arise in the domestic forums of developing countries, as well as the jurisdictional challenges presented by corporate structures which preclude home State protection. Absent effective international regulation, this paper demonstrates that continued emphasis on State responsibility, particularly in developing countries, is unworkable.

The article provides a fresh illustration of the challenges to the regulation of MNCs in the light of recent case law. It contributes to an evolving literature on the wider topic of non-State actor regulation, which continues to generate significant academic debate.

This article aims to contribute to the re-evaluation of the global market system using a Marxist inspired theory of development, dependency.

This article draws on dependency theory as an alternative means of understanding global relationships. Building on existing literature, it modifies dependency to encapsulate technological developments and trends in the global market.

Re-evaluating the global market and the relationships that underpin it, through an alternative theory, highlights the fragility of markets and associated relationships. Increasingly, nation states are becoming irrelevant. This presents a problem as the main actors in the global market today are “above” inter-state relations, yet the organs that regulate their behaviour still are grounded in inter-state rhetoric. The relationship between development and underdevelopment remains.

The financial crisis has propagated a wealth of interest in the relationships between states, between multi-national corporations (MNCs) and between MNCs and state. Using this broad theory of modified dependency, it can be applied to a range of different relationships. In the wake of financial crisis, there is the opportunity to raise awareness of these ingrained issues and initiate discussions at national, regional and international levels to alleviate some of the conditions of dependence.

Regardless of the work of national governments and NGOs to instigate development in lesser-developed regions through policy and regulations, unless there is a conscientious commitment from MNCs operating in that region to contribute to development, the result will be the development of underdevelopment and the underdevelopment of development. CSR can help alleviate the conditions of the dependence on capital generated by MNCs, but this is not a solution to an ingrained problem, capitalism.

This article introduces a modified theory of dependency for the first time. It applies the theory to the financial crisis and to the continent of Africa. It considers the role that CSR can play in alleviating the conditions of dependence.

CSR within a purely voluntary context has so far not made meaningful contributions to the problem of corporate environmental and human rights abuses in Africa. The paper therefore aims to improve the effectiveness of CSR in the continent by making companies accountable for the veracity of statements they have voluntarily put out in the public domain.

The paper adopts the stakeholder and legitimacy theories and information regulation as its framework of analysis. Following a discourse on the developments in and limitations of sustainability, the paper constructs an argument in line with these theories how these reports can still be utilised to make meaningful contribution towards strengthening CSR through accountability for false and misleading statements.

Corporations have a stake in information in sustainability reports with regard to their corporate image and reputation. Therefore, under the appropriate framework, utilising corporate accountability for false and misleading statements by companies has promise for making CSR more effective.

The main limitations of this research is the political will of national governments in Africa to undertake such an exercise and the relative ability of civil society groups in light of the power of corporations to effectively hold them to account through the models proposed.

The paper is interdisciplinary, drawing upon both management and legal theories. A significant contribution of this research is its pragmatic approach which goes beyond calling for legal platform for CSR by recommending a model for accountability within the existing voluntary CSR framework.

The aim is to discuss the role of social capital in alleviating poverty in the rural setting of Africa by viewing it as an individual and collective asset.

The authors use primary data from a survey on rural households living in three different districts in rural Africa. The authors design a social complexity index giving evidence on the poverty alleviation effect of complex patterns of civic participation at district level.

Results support the view that social capital may mitigate poverty only if a rural household simultaneously participates in a plurality of social communities. Such mitigation is reinforced if she also lives in a socially complex district, whereas on the contrary the social complexity of a district, per se, is not enough to alleviate poverty.

This paper contributes to advance the knowledge of African rural areas and to identify potential developments of poverty policies in Africa based on diversified social capital as a valuable ingredient for poverty alleviation policies. This paper also contributes to the debate on social capital by showing that diversified social capital has a prevailing individual nature rather than a collective one.