Danielle Mendes Thame 

DENNY

Danielle has carried out research on sustainability assessment and techlaw since her masters when she analysed possibilities of green washing in an empirical study case using participant observation. Her PhD was also on social and environmental sustainability assessment, under the International Economic Law research group; its focal point was a private voluntary sustainability standard regarding renewable energy and the use of technology. Through process tracing she managed to track the 2030 Agenda governance derived from the adoption of this sustainable voluntary standard and published many chapters and papers about her findings. Her academic background was first in Law (Bachelor 2001), then Politics (postgraduate study 2002), Taxation (LLM 2004), Economic Diplomacy (Diploma 2005), International Relations (Diplomacy exam preparation from 2006 to 2010), Communication in the contemporaneity (MPhil 2012) and International Environmental Law (PhD 2018).

For more details, please refer to: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8964-5205

Recent/Selected Publications

Book Chapters

•  Denny, D.M.T., ‘Competitive Renewables as the Key to Energy Transition—RenovaBio: the Brazilian Biofuel Regulation’ in Lucas Noura Guimarães (eds), The Regulation and Policy of Latin American Energy Transitions (Elsevier 2020), 223-242 https://doi.org/10.1016/C2018-0-04098-0
• Denny D.M.T., ‘Blockchain and the Agenda 2030’ in J Veuger (ed), Blockchain Technology and Applications (Nova Science Publishers 2019)
• Denny D.M.T., ‘Voluntary Sustainability Standards’ in AC Vieira (ed), International Economic Law and the Environment: Promoting Sustainable Development on Local, Regional, National and Global Contexts (Santos: Leopoldianum 2017), Vol 1, 35-43 https://www.unisantos.br/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DEIMA.pdf

Journal Articles

•  Castro, D. and Denny, D.M.T. ‘Economic Relationship between Brazil and China: An Empirical Assessment Using Sentiment and Content Analysis’. (2020) 11 Beijing Law Review, 227-243. doi: 4236/blr.2020.111016
• Denny, D.M.T. and Leao G. ‘Marketing Using Lottery: Analysis of the Commercial Campaigns Considering Aspects of Social Corporate Responsibility, Consumer Rights and Protection of Personal Data’ [2019] 23(9) Revista de Direito Brasileir, 302-322 http://dx.doi.org/10.26668/IndexLawJournals/2358-1352/2019.v23i9.5125
• Denny, D.M.T. ‘Recent Business and Human Rights Brazilian Regulation’ (2019) 10 Beijing Law Review, 643-655. doi: 4236/blr.2019.104036
• Denny, D.M.T. ‘Human Rights and Market Access’ [2018] 15(2) Brazilian Journal of International Law, 203-221. http://dx.doi.org/10.5102/rdi.v15i2.5277
• Denny, M.T. ‘Global Environmental Governance Facing Tragedy of the Commons, Super Wicked Problems and Emotivism’ (2017) 10 Building Bridges: Finding Common Grounds for a Sustainable Future, 48-55. https://issuu.com/tvergasteinjournal/docs/tvergastein_issue10_visningsfil
• Denny, M.T., Granziera, M.L.M. and Goncalves A. ‘Water Governance in Brazil: River Basin Committees.’ (2018) 11 Water, 55-63. https://issuu.com/tvergasteinjournal/docs/tvergastein_issue11_referanse
• Denny, M.T. and others, ‘Agenda 2030 Measurements and Finance Interaction of International Investment Law and Sustainability‘ (2017) Vol 14 (30) Veredas do Direito, Belo Horizonte, 53-76.

For more details, please refer to: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Denny_Thame

• Voluntary Sustainability Standards
• Regulation of global value-chains
• Climate change and access to justice
• Biodiversity law

Projects

Voluntary Sustainability Standards

Over the last decades, the Global Environmental Governance legal framework has been dramatically changed. Scholars and practitioners working on International Environmental Law have witnessed the emergence of many diverse actors and proliferation of rules originating from many spheres of power and having a potential global impact. A new form of private driven and multilevel global governance is being put in to place, this because globalization has transformed the international context in several ways, mainly by increasing the role of companies and private entities.

Comparing to the substantial increase in the economic power of companies, many national governments become weak and no longer are in the position of exercising their regulatory power. Stricter rules could represent less investment of the companies in their countries. This decreases the capacity and interest of the national governments to demand from company’s compliance with standards especially social and environmental ones. And as production and trade is done in the global market, players facing fewer regulations have advantages over the competitors.

Three basic developments made possible the actual integration of global supply chains necessary for our present global production: revolutionary information technologies innovations in all spheres of society, capital mobility, and risky financial instruments. These characteristics pose challenges to traditional spheres of power and make it possible for new actors to participate in the political arena effectively enough to tilt the balance of power, and cause ripple effects such as consumer concerns and media publicity. These diffuse effects can influence government policies, set the international agenda and increases the space to private environmental governance for example though the adoption of voluntary sustainability standards by companies or non-governmental organizations.
These voluntary sustainability standards attest about the environmental and/or social compliance of the production processes and the supply chains. Despite not having much direct government intervention, these regulations are interdependent with the legal regulatory framework in place in the State, region, and city they operate. And the public authorities have an important role to stimulate or disincentive this private environmental governance in many ways. On the consumers perspective, the adoption of codes of ethics, the submission of the operation to sustainability reports, constant verification of compliance, independent third parties’ assessments, and certifications become expected from the ethical business.

But what is this myriad of voluntary sustainability standards being adopted? What are their impacts into global trade? How can this be governed? The research will try to shed a light on these topics. The methodology will be three-fold: descriptive research, evaluative-empirical approach, and normative-conceptual analysis. In the first part it will describe the state of affairs, as it exists at present relating to private environmental governance. Secondly it will conduct an evaluative research to infer the existence of a causal mechanism and the parts that interconnect the private environmental governance to global trade. Third it will seek to generate policy relevant knowledge on the integration of public, private and multilayers policy instruments.