By: Martijn W. Scheltema
One might take many angles on the effectiveness of international private regulation. These turn on the method of assessing effectiveness. This method might involve a legal perspective. However, one may acknowledge the importance of other scientific disciplines to assess the effectiveness of international private regulation too. In this respect an economic, sociological, or psychological/behavioral avenue are all avenues for exploration. Obviously, the more avenues that demonstrate effectiveness, the more effective private regulation is deemed to be. Moreover, an integrated approach is required to thoroughly assess the effectiveness of international private regulation. However, the notion of effectiveness is unspecified. One might use this notion of effectiveness in addition to the legal or sociological avenue or as a synonym for impact assessment (which adopts insights from the economic and sociological approach). I define effectiveness, in line with my call for an integrated approach, as an overarching notion entailing legal, economic, sociological, and psychological/behavioral avenues. Therefore, this article outlines a methodology that adopts all of these approaches and uses insights from all of these disciplines to find ex ante indicators predicting the effectiveness of international private regulation and to find instruments to measure the effectiveness thereof ex post in comparison with other international private regulation. Because international private regulation is omnipresent in the international arena and might differ depending on locale, this contribution will focus on international private regulation in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arena.