ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the place of TNCs in international law. It explains that civil society organisations, which may represent victims but can also be associations of business, can obtain consultative status with international organisations like the UN, and in this capacity have access to a limited form of participation in international law-making, primarily to provide input to the process. The chapter explains how international law-making theory has proposed to increase the participation of business in super-national law-making to develop norms of conduct for businesses order to provide for stronger support among them for the resulting normative directives. It explains how regulatory innovation has occurred in practice through various types of public, private and public-private (hybrid) initiatives. It describes key actors in public-private law-making aiming at governing business conduct with regards to societal impacts, and explains the quite considerable and often conflicting power interests at play with public organisations, businesses and business organisations, the labour movement and NGOs representing civil society.
