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Private Regulatory Fragmentation as Public Policy: Governing Canada’s Mining Industry

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Abstract

This paper addresses recent calls to study the role of the state in private regulation. Integrating current scholarship on the state as a catalyst of private regulatory regimes with prior literature on regulatory failure and self-regulation, it identifies and problematizes unsettled assumptions used as a starting point by this growing body of research. The case study traces the evolution of public debates and the interaction of different regulatory initiatives dealing with corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues in Canada’s mining industry. Findings reveal the conditions under which the state is more likely to encourage firm-level, fragmented initiatives than facilitate and promote industry-wide regulatory strengthening and consolidation. I discuss the need for greater analytical precision regarding the variation in regulatory policy preferences across time and branches of government and the interaction between public and private regulatory initiatives. The conclusion outlines suggested areas for future research as well as the likely outcome of Canada’s current CSR policy framework.

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  1. CIDA was merged with DFAIT on March 21st 2013 to create a new government department named the Department of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Development (DFAITD).

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to Wesley Cragg, Philip Oxhorn, and Franque Grimard for their support and guidance. This paper benefited greatly from the comments received from two anonymous reviewers and participants at the 2013 World Mining Congress Ethics and Sustainability Track, as well as funding from McGill’s Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID).

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  1. Strategy & Organization, Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

    José Carlos Marques

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Fig. 2
figure 2

Timeline of events (process perspective)—public debate regarding CSR in the Canadian mining industry

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Marques, J.C. Private Regulatory Fragmentation as Public Policy: Governing Canada’s Mining Industry. J Bus Ethics 135, 617–630 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2377-3

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