Paper on EU/US corporate social responsibility by Professor Luca Enriques wins ECGI prize

An article on the "growing divide" between the EU and US on issues of corporate social responsibility has been awarded the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) prize for the best paper of 2025 in its Law Working Paper series.

The paper, 'How the EU Sustainability Due Diligence Directive Could Reshape Corporate America', is authored by Professor Luca Enriques, Professor of Business Law at Bocconi University, Visiting Professor in Oxford's Faculty of Law, and Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of European and Comparative Law, alongside Professor Matteo Gatti (Rutgers Law School) and Professor Roy Shapira (Reichman University). Professor Enriques worked on the paper in his previous role as Professor of Corporate Law at Oxford.

The article examines the EU's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D) and its implications for US companies, many of which fall within the directive's broad territorial scope. The paper argues that while the directive requires firms to implement tailored due diligence processes rather than guarantee outcomes, this flexibility risks superficial compliance but may also increase directors' exposure to oversight liability under US law. The combination of expansive EU regulation and the US enforcement environment, the article suggests, could prompt changes in how American corporations manage human rights and environmental risks globally.