1. Kish Parella Publishes “Corporate Governance & International Law” in the Alabama Law Review

Kish Parella Publishes "Corporate Governance & International Law" in the Alabama Law Review The article examines how stakeholder activism can compel corporations to comply with international law.

By Law Communications
January 20, 2025

Washington and Lee law professor Kish Parella has published an article in the Alabama Law Review. The article, "Corporate Governance & International Law," examines stakeholder activism by NGOs, consumers, employees, and others that can compel corporations to comply with international law. The article explores how sequential activism can reduce enforcement costs and enhance deterrence, while remaining limited in achieving punishment or reparations compared to courts or political processes.

"This Article synthesizes the insights of corporate governance with the challenges of international law. Descriptively, it identifies both a problem and solution: stakeholders are rationally apathetic because they confront high per capita costs (information, coordination, and conflict) of enforcing international law but receive low per capita benefits from such enforcement. But this Article explains how sequential stakeholder activism provides changes to these cost-benefit analyses: actions by one group-such as consumers, employees, suppliers, financial institutions, or the media-can lower detection, verification, and transmission costs while increasing the benefits each stakeholder receives from enforcement by socializing stakeholders to share preferences, thereby reducing conflict and coordination costs. Critically, international law converts particularized company wrongdoing into violations of global norms-thereby offering economies of scale to stakeholders who want to enforce international law. Enforcement is a chain reaction," writes Parella.

The article is available online at the Alabama Law Review website.

If you know a W&L faculty member who has done great, accolade-worthy things, tell us about them! Nominate them for an accolade.