An increasing proportion of business regulation emanates not from conventional state institutions but from an array of private sector, civil society, multi-stakeholder, and public-private institutions operating in a dynamic, transnational regulatory space. Accounting standards, forestry certification schemes, fair trade labels, and many other transnational business regulation initiatives (TBRIs) grow in scope and importance as production, consumption and their impacts are globalized and states explore new approaches to regulation. In Canada, their importance is enhanced by such developments as the federal government's recent endorsement of voluntary social responsibility standards and defeat of mandatory regulation for the mining sector.

We know a fair amount about the types, emergence, effectiveness and legitimacy of TBRIs. We know very little, however, about how they interact with one another and with state law and regulation, and hence about the larger regulatory systems being constituted. Without understanding these interactions it is difficult to assess the implications of TBRIs for the environment, society, and economy. Are TBRIs racing one another to the top or to the bottom? Are they reinforcing or undermining economic prosperity, environmental protection, sustainable development and human rights? Which interactions will promote lasting solutions to such challenges? How can policy actors?states, international organizations, civil society organizations or business leaders?orchestrate these interactions to promote positive outcomes?

Three leading universities (York University, Arizona State University and the London School of Economics), a prominent research centre (The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy), and the world's leading association of social and environmental standards initiatives (the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance) are partnering to fill this gap by supporting an international research network on interactions in transnational business regulation, conducting collaborative interdisciplinary research, creating policy-relevant knowledge across academic and non-academic sectors, and mobilizing that knowledge in support of innovative and effective policy solutions.

Using workshops, electronic collaboration, print and Internet publications, a website and social media,the partnership will make substantial strides in improving knowledge of the important yet largely ignored dynamics of interaction in transnational business regulation, and in mobilizing this knowledge in support of innovative policy solutions that promote social, environmental and economic goals.