Law and Sustainability : Reshaping the Socio-Economic Order Through Economic and Technological Innovation

This book deals with some aspects of the future shape of the socio-economic order which would be founded on sustainability principles and the role of law therein, instead of on the prevailing capitalist economic order. The volume elaborates in particular on how innovation, a crucial aspect of free-market capitalism and its laws which constitute the current socio-economic order, could result in a more sustainable economy which, in turn, could lead to a more sustainable society. Moreover, the book analyses current developments in financial and economic law and evaluates their perks, risks and sustainability levels.

The book contains no less than 11 chapters in which a variety of experts share their state-of-the-art insights regarding specific domains of socio-economic life. As such, the book deals with topics that are at present fully under debate in societies, such as student credit and the dangers it entails, crypto­currencies and how the law tries to regulate this basically privatelaw instrument, groups of companies under Belgian (company) law, a proposal for improving the international monetary system, and seeds and intellectual property rights, besides various other similar themes.

The book forms the latest volume of the book series Economic and Financial Law & Policy – Shifting Insights & Values, and fully complies with the series’ goal of critically exa­mining the legal methods and mechanisms that shape the global free markets and proposing alternatives to them. The book will hereby prove a valuable instru­ment for all researchers investigating these matters, besides policymakers and their ad­visers as well as all lawyers active in the field of economic law who look for a new per­spective on the subject matters dealt with.

Koen Byttebier holds a law degree (University of Ghent, 1989) and a doctoral degree which he obtained with a dissertation on hostile takeovers (University of Ghent, 1992). Koen Byttebier started his academic career at the University of Ghent in 1989. In 1992, he was appointed as postdoctoral researcher (FWO) at the University of Ghent, before joining the Free University of Brussels in 1994 as a full staff member of its Law Faculty. Since then, Koen Byttebier has been a full time Professor of Law, first in the Depart­ment of Economic Law, and later on in the Department of Private and Economic Law, at the Free University of Brussels (which he also presided for a period of 20 years). He has been teaching several subjects relating to his specialization: economic law, enterprise law, monetary and financial law, insolvency and collateral Law, and, since a couple of years, a course titled Ethics of the Socio-Economic Order (dealing with issues such as political economy and sustainability). Koen Byttebier has, moreover, written several textbooks and numerous articles in his chosen field of specialization and speaks regularly at national and international conferences. He started the book series Publications of the Centre for Economic Law (Maklu/Intersentia) – of which he is also series editor – and is on the editorial board of several law magazines. In 2017, Koen Byttebier became one of the chief series editors of the book series Economic & Finan­cial Law & Policy – Shifting Insights & Values (Springer) – which he also conceived, together with Kim Van der Borght. In line with his academic specialization, Koen Byttebier is regularly invited as a speaker on various subjects of economic, financial, and enterprise and company law. Since 1996, Koen Byttebier is also a practising lawyer and conducts his own law firm in Ghent (Belgium).

Kim Van der Borght is Professor of International Economic Law and Diplomacy at the Free University of Brussels andpresident of the Belgian Branch of the International Law Association. Recently, Van der Borght has become the series editor of the Eco­nomic & Financial Law & Policy – Shifting Insights & Values (Springer) – which he conceived together with Koen Byttebier. In the past, Van der Borght held professorships at the University of Westminster and the University of Hull. Van der Borght is listed on several national and international panels, amongst which The Governmental Roster of Panelists of the World Trade Organization (WTO), The Roster of Panelists for the Treaty between the European Union and Central America, and The Roster of Panellists for the Treaties between the European Union and Peru and Colombia (since March 2013). Kim Van der Borght is, moreover, an accredited specialist with the European Commission (since 2014). Van der Borght also acts an accredited arbitrator (CEPANI) and as a legal adviser on issues of international trade, investment, and intellectual pro­perty rights affiliated to the dispute settlement programme of the United Nations Con­ference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He acted in the past as an independent expert advisor to the Secretary of State for Development, Federal Government of Belgium, and as an independent advisor for the Strategic Council on the International Relations of the Flemish Region. Van der Borght has been a visiting professor at various national and foreign universities, such as the School of WTO Research and Education at Shanghai University of International Business & Eco­nomics (formerly Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade) (Shanghai, China) (2013–2014), the University of Georgia (USA), Brussels School of International Studies (Uni­versity of Kent at Canterbury), Columbia University Law School, Tongji University, Hainan Institute for Reform and Development at Hainan University, Xiamen University, the University of Georgia, City University of Hong Kong, Kansas University, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Moscow State University, the University of Catanzaro, the University of East London, Birzeit University, Gaeddu College of Business Studies, Royal University of Bhutan, Indian Law Society’s Law College (ILS) (Pune, India), and Bhartiya Vidyapeeth New Law College (Pune, India).