ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a general discussion of the conditions under which the global harmonization of social regulations has become an issue of intense concern and interest, especially within industrialized countries, and how efforts toward these ends might affect states' authority to regulate. It presents several possible ways in which such regulation might result in impacts on state sovereignty. One crucial reason has to do with the general question of social regulation and social policy under conditions of "globalization". On the one hand, there have been major changes in the international division of labor associated with transnational commodity chains while, on the other hand, there have been changes in the international division of regulation among international regimes, markets, and states. The regulatory environments faced by individual corporations vary greatly among countries and production sites, although, where labor laws are concerned, many states have ratified most if not all of the relevant basic International Labour Organization conventions conventions.
