This course introduces the new, interdisciplinary field of Corporate Sustainability Law, which identifies and analyses the multi-layered regulatory framework that intends to promote corporate sustainability.
Corporate sustainability concerns the contribution of business to sustainability, which is necessary if we are going to be able achieve overarching sustainability goals in this decade of action towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The elective positions the discussion of business in the unsustainable reality of our time, and analyses how business can create value in a sustainable way. Creating sustainable value is, amongst other things, contributing to the protection of human rights, ensuring decent work, and fair taxation. Sustainable value creation is also about contributing to mitigating climate change, reversing biodiversity loss, and phasing out novel entities such as microplastics. We will discuss sectors such as the energy sector, the food industry, and the fashion industry, as concrete examples of the unsustainability of business as usual.
Whatever the sector, company law and corporate governance is the core of the regulatory infrastructure of the dominant form for organising business: the company. There is an inherent tension in law’s focus on the legal form of the individual company as a creature of national law and the cross-border organization of business through global value chains. Knowledge in this field requires an extensive understanding of the interconnections, gaps and attempts at achieving coherence, across international, European and national levels of laws and policies.
Corporate Sustainability Law will encompass international developments, including the UN Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. In the EU, there is an increasing and unprecedented interest in discussing the regulation of business, with roots in the paradigm shift of the Commission’s definition of Corporate Social Responsibility in 2011. With the launch of the Commission’s Sustainable Corporate Governance Initiative in 2020, the adoption of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive in 2022 and of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive 2024, company law and corporate governance have become the topic of a heated political debate. The international trend of lawsuits against business for unsustainable activities are also a crucial element of this regulatory framework.
The course will draw on extensive comparative company law and corporate governance research as a basis for analysing and discussing these developments in the EU and the national developments, including the Norwegian Transparency Act (‘Åpenhetsloven’).
The course provides a thorough understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of the dominant and of newer, more progressive approaches to the company. The core themes of the elective will be corporate purpose, governance of the business (including of global value chains), and the evolving duties of the board.
Teaching
Teaching for this course is hybrid. Students can follow the teaching in Oslo or online on the following dates:
- 23 January, 10:15–12:00
- 16–19 February, 10:15–12:00
- 23–26 February, 16:15–18:00
- 4 March, 12:15–14:00
- 5 March, 10:15–12:00
- 6 March, 12:15–14:00
Learning outcome
You will learn the importance of globalised business in this crucial decade of action towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and how corporate purpose, the governance of business and core duties of the corporate board are regulated today and how they could be regulated in the future.
The candidates will achieve:
- A basic comprehension of the concept of Corporate Sustainability Law
- A basic understanding of the theories that inform the current debates on business and sustainability
- An overview of the multilevel regulatory framework intended to promote corporate sustainability in international, EU and domestic laws and policies
- Knowledge of the EU and Member State regulatory initiatives to facilitate corporate sustainability, notably regulating the purpose and governance of the company, and the duties of the board, including corporate sustainability due diligence
The candidates will develop skills enabling them to:
- Analyse EU and Member States laws and policies seeking to facilitate corporate sustainability
- Discuss, in light of the evolving regulatory framework for corporate sustainability,
- The corporate purpose of companies
- The integration of sustainability governance of companies, including their global value chains
- Duties of the board, including corporate sustainability due diligence
The candidates will gain a basic understanding of the possibilities and interconnections, gaps and incoherencies, in the regulatory framework of corporate sustainability law.
Admission to the course
Requirement: Enrolment in a bachelor's program at one of the partner universities in Circle U.
The course has a limited number of study places. In case of more eligible students than available places, all applicants will be pooled together and selected at random to ensure that all eligible candidates have an equal opportunity to participate. However, study places will be distributed so that students from all Circle U. partners are represented. This is a course with hybrid teaching, which implies online teaching for admitted Circle U. students who will receive a Zoom link to attend the lectures digitally only.
Students from Circle U. apply in Nettskjema
The application period is from 3 December 2025 to 15 January 2026
Recommended previous knowledge
Please note that lectures and curriculum for this course are aimed at students at master’s degree level. However, the achievement requirements are adjusted for students who take the subject at bachelor’s degree level.
Teaching
Students are given the opportunity to give a short group presentation in the course room, with the topic selected from a list of possible themes.
This course has mandatory requirements:
All students must submit a blog-style essay of maximum 1000 words (approved/not approved), which may be on or related to the topics presented in the course room, to be submitted and assessed after the lectures. The essay may be submitted by individual students or a group of students (maximum five).
All students will have the opportunity to have their blog-style essay selected for further guidance towards a blog post on Blogging for Sustainability.
Examination
Students are graded on the basis of a 4 hour written home exam and an oral exam (15-20 mins).
More information on the exam can be found on the course page at UiO.
