Katinka Jesse, born in Castricum, the Netherlands, in 1967. Ph.D. from Tilburg University. Post-doctoral Research Fellow at North-West University, Potchefstroom.
HUGO Fellow (1 September 2011 – 30 November 2012)
A Normative Framework to Manage Corporate Environmental Responsibility Conflicts
The research is part of HUGO (Hague Utilities for Global Organisations), a programme that aims to create and collect instruments for the development of international norm setting regarding corporate responsibility, such as The Hague based institutions for international dispute management. Whereas a clear and defined legal and moral framework to solve disputes relating to corporate human rights violations has been created (the Ruggie framework), the normative framework for environmental conflicts is less clear. The main question of this research is therefore:
Is it feasible to formulate a normative framework to approach and settle corporate environmental responsibility conflicts?
To answer this question, the research will focus on the identification and analysis of current environmental norms – either legal (e.g. environmental treaties), semi-legal (e.g. Global Compact), self-regulatory (e.g. company codes) and/or civil regulatory (e.g. Forest Stewardship Council). Should one principle-based framework not be feasible, geographical, sectoral and/or impact-related differentiations will be assessed.
“Corporate Environmental Accountability as a Means for Intragenerational Equity: ‘Hidden’ Environmental Impacts in the North-South Conflict”, in H.C. Bugge and C. Voigt (eds.), Sustainable development in international and national law: what did the Brundtland report do to legal thinking and legal development, and where can we go from here?, Groningen 2008, 147-174. Together with M.J. van der Heijden
Een hernieuwd perspectief op milieueffectrapportage. Over de inhoudelijke invloed van m.e.r. en enkele mogelijkheden ter flexibilisering, (PhD Tilburg University), Utrecht 2008.
Country report: the Netherlands, IUCN Academy of Environmental Law e-Journal, 2011(1), 155-162. Together with J.M. Verschuuren. (On the Dutch Shell-Nigeria and the Trafigura court cases)