Företags hållbara utveckling: juridiskt vakuum – Vilka intressen är det som styr?

Sammanfattning: Sustainable development, as in Swedish law is used synonymously with the international term CSR, is essentially based on four areas: human rights, environmental, labour and anti-corruption. The Swedish Government Offices published in year 2013 the publication "Sustainable business - Platform for Swedish action", in order to determine how the Swedish law looks at the concept of sustainable development, which values and how an implementation of the concept will take place at a national level. This thesis will only treat the environmental area. The purpose of this thesis is to examine what incentives the publication provides for Swedish companies to implement sustainable development in their business models and how the current regulation looks on the field. In order to understand the national position it is necessary to get an overview of the international guidelines and principles that the publication of sustainable development is based on. Today's regulations in the area of CSR are only so-called "soft law", which is not binding legislation. It is further more the basis for this thesis: to try to investigate why it is so that there is no fixed regulation and what interests that controls the regulation of sustainable development for businesses. Is there a real intention from the Swedish state to get more companies to implement sustainable development in their business models or is the Government Office’s publication on sustainable development just grandstanding? In summary, there is a real intention, both from the Swedish side and in the international guidelines and principles to get more companies to implement sustainable business practices into their business models. Unfortunately, it seems to be that corporate profit is prioritized and inhibits that a permanent regulation in this area will be created, this is the reason why companies find themselves in a legal vacuum since they themselves choose if they want to implement sustainable development in their business models or not.