Corporate Law and Corporate Governance:
Sustainable Corporate Governance: The New European Ambition and the French Experience

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The EU Omnibus I Simplification Package proposed significant changes. More sustainable compliance, voluntary standards, almost no more transition plans. How can shareholders and stakeholders be assured that the main objectives of the EU Green Deal of 2019 will be maintained? Simplification and rationalization were necessary to make these various regulations operational, and the generalization of the ESA is a good thing.  In France, the Duty of Vigilance Law of 27 March 2017, has made something of an effective comeback, given both the removal of Article 29 S1 of the CS3D by the Omnibus Package and the rise of instructive lawsuits (for example, TotalEnergies, CA Paris, 18 June 2024, La Poste CA Paris, 17 June 2025, TJ Paris, 12 mars 2026, Syndicat Petrol-Is et a. c/ Laboratoires Yves Rocher). The next generation of sustainable board directors has never been so much in the spotlight when it comes to developing sustainable strategy, taking stakeholder interests into account, ensuring stakeholder dialogue, and ultimately, if it is still possible, achieving net zero carbon by 2050, just as the Paris Climate Agreement is going to be 10 years old. The extraterritoriality of CS3D (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive) may fuel this debate as it may concern US companies. The sustainable strategy defined by the board of Companies especially working in the extractive sector is hard to put into practice mostly because the Stakeholders (the NGO for example) are focusing on the Transition Plans announcing the reduction of GHGs which is never enough in their eyes. What is the Brussel Effect? How to cause no significant harm to the Planet?

About the Speaker:

Catherine Malecki is a Professor of Private Law at Rennes 2 University (France) and a member of Institut Universitaire de France (IUF). She is also a member of the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Recherche en Innovations Sociétales (LiRIS), Rennes 2 University and ECGI (European Corporate Governance Institute). Her main research themes are business law, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, sustainable finance, comparative corporate governance, sustainable and climate finance. Her book “Corporate Social Responsibility Perspectives for Sustainable Corporate Governance” offers a big picture on CRS and sustainable corporate governance. The list of her publications is accessible at https://perso.univ-rennes2.fr/en/catherine.malecki.

Chair: Professor Say Goo, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong