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41 U. Pa. J. Int'l L. 249 (2019-2020)
ESG Disclosure in Comparative Perspective: Optimizing Private Ordering in Public Reporting

handle is hein.journals/upjiel41 and id is 254 raw text is: ESG DISCLOSURE IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: OPTIMIZING PRIVATE ORDERING IN PUBLIC REPORTING VIRGINIA HARPER Ho* & STEPHEN KIM PARK** ABSTRACT Demand for corporate non-financial environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information from investors and governments is on the rise globally, and leading securities regulators and stock exchanges worldwide now encourage or mandate its disclosure by large firms. However, rising demand has been matched by growing dissatisfaction with ESG informational gaps in financial reports, on the one hand, and the dearth of investment-grade information in corporate sustainability reports and other public sources, on the other. These developments raise questions about whether the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its counterparts in other jurisdictions should continue to defer primarily to private market-based approaches to ESG disclosure, reform the disclosure framework to expressly address non-financial information, or seek to combine elements of both public disclosure regulation and private ordering in new ways. This Article anticipates these policy choices by assessing the range of approaches to ESG disclosure that have been adopted in the United States and six other influential jurisdictions: South Africa, Brazil, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and * Professor of Law and Associate Dean for International & Comparative Law, University of Kansas School of Law. ** Associate Professor of Business Law and Satell Fellow in Corporate Social Responsibility, University of Connecticut. Prior versions of this Article were presented at the National Business Law Scholars Conference, the American Society of Comparative Law Workshop on Comparative Business and Financial Law at Fordham Law School, and the Notre Dame Law School Faculty Colloquium. Many thanks to colleagues, friends, and family for their support and encouragement. All errors and omissions are our own. 249

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