Peter A Allard School of Law

Stepan Wood

Professor
Canada Research Chair in Law, Society and Sustainability, Director of the Centre for Law and the Environment

Profile

Professor Stepan Wood’s research relates to sustainability, globalization, transnational governance, voluntary environmental standards, climate change, environmental law, corporate social responsibility and social justice. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Law, Society and Sustainability at the Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia, where he also directs the Centre for Law & the Environment. His current projects relate to the rights of nature, environmental rights, homelessness, the reception of English law in colonial British Columbia, and the future of the International Organization for Standardization.

From 2011 to 2020 he led the interdisciplinary Transnational Business Governance Interactions (TBGI) project, an international research network examining the drivers, dynamics, and impacts of competition, cooperation, coordination, and conflict among transnational initiatives to regulate global business. His most recent book (co-edited with Kenneth W Abbott and others) is Transnational Business Governance Interactions: Advancing Marginalized Actors and Enhancing Regulatory Quality (Elgar 2019). His earlier book on Canada and globalization co-authored with political economist Stephen Clarkson, A Perilous Imbalance (UBC Press, 2010), was shortlisted for the Donald Smiley award for best book on Canadian politics. Professor Wood is the founding co-chair of the Willms & Shier Moot, Canada’s leading environmental law moot court competition for law students. He is a long-time member of Canada’s national committee on environmental management standards and a Canadian negotiator of ISO 14001 and associated standards at the International Organization for Standardization.

Professor Wood holds an LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School and an SJD from Harvard Law School. He was a law clerk to the late Justice John Sopinka of the Supreme Court of Canada and practised law with White & Case in New York. Before joining the Allard School of Law in 2017, he was Professor and York Research Chair in Environmental Law and Justice at Osgoode Hall Law School, where he was also Editor-in-Chief of the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Coordinator of the JD/Master in Environmental Studies joint degree program, acting director of the interdisciplinary Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability and founding co-director of Osgoode’s Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic. He has held visiting appointments around the world, including at the University of Melbourne, Monash University, University of Verona, Bar-Ilan University, the European University Institute, and Northwestern University.

Research and Publications

To learn more about my research, please visit my PURE Research profile. You can also access my publications on the following sites: 

 

Publications

NPE Journal Cover
Stepan Wood
“Local Grounding of Transnational Private Governance Authority: Translation, Contestation, Legitimation and Communities of Practice”
Full text: (2022) 27:2 New Political Economy 240-256
Stepan Wood et al.
“Harnessing TBGIs to Advance Regulatory Quality and Marginalized Actors”
in Stepan Wood et al., eds.,
Transnational Business Governance Interactions: Advancing Marginalized Actors and Enhancing Regulatory Quality
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019
pp. 363-386

Online Access (with full-text)
Stepan Wood
“Interactive Strategies for Advancing Marginalized Actors in Transnational Governance Contests: Labour and the Making of ISO 26000”
in Stepan Wood et al., eds.,
Transnational Business Governance Interactions: Advancing Marginalized Actors and Enhancing Regulatory Quality
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019
pp. 338-361

Online Access (with full-text)
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Stepan Wood et al.
“Transnational Business Governance Interactions, Regulatory Quality and Marginalized Actors: An Introduction”
in Stepan Wood et al., eds.,
Transnational Business Governance Interactions: Advancing Marginalized Actors and Enhancing Regulatory Quality
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019
pp. 1-26

Online Access (with full-text)
Stepan Wood et al., eds.
Transnational Business Governance Interactions: Advancing Marginalized Actors and Enhancing Regulatory Quality
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019

Online Access (with full-text)
Stepan Wood
“Exploring the Relationship between Administrative Norms and Competence in Transnational Governance: ISO, ISEAL and Sustainability Standards”
Full text: (2016) 21:2 Tilburg L Rev 193-229
Stepan Wood, Kenneth W. Abbott, Julia Black, Burkard Eberlein & Errol Meidinger
“The Interactive Dynamics of Transnational Business Governance: A Challenge for Transnational Legal Theory”
Full text: (2015) 6:2 Transnat'l L Theory 333-369
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Burkard Eberlein, Kenneth W. Abbott, Julia Black, Errol Meidinger & Stepan Wood
“Transnational Business Governance Interactions: Conceptualization and Framework for Analysis”
Full text: (2014) 8 Reg & Governance 1-21
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Stepan Wood
“The Case for Leverage-Based Corporate Human Rights Responsibility”
Full text: (2013) 27 Bus Ethics Q 30-42
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Andrea L. Smith, Nina Hewitt, Nicole Klenk, Dawn R. Bazely, Norman Yan, Stepan Wood, Irene Henriques, James I. MacLellan, and Carla Lipsig-Mummé
“Effects of Climate Change on the Distribution of Invasive Alien Species in Canada: A Knowledge Synthesis of Range Change Projections in a Warming World”
Full text: (2012) 20:1 Envtl Rev 1-16
Stepan Wood
“The International Organization for Standardization”
in Peter Utting, Darryl Reed & Ananya Mukherjee Reed, eds.,
Business Regulation and Non-State Actors: Whose Standards? Whose Development?
London: Routledge, 2012
pp. 81-94

UBC Library Location
Stepan Wood & Kevin Thompson
“Transnational Voluntary Climate Change Initiatives for Local Governments: Key Variables, Drivers and Likely Effects”
in Benjamin J. Richardson
Local Climate Change Law: Environmental Regulation in Cities and Other Localities
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012
pp. 29-66

UBC Library Location
Stepan Wood
“The Meaning of 'Sphere of Influence' in ISO 26000”
in Adrian Henriques, ed.,
Understanding ISO 26000: A Practical Approach to Social Responsibility
London: British Standards Institution, 2011
pp. 115-130
Online Access (with full-text)
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Stepan Wood, Georgia Tanner & Benjamin J. Richardson
“What Ever Happened to Canadian Environmental Law?”
Full text: (2011) 37:4 Ecology L. Q. 981-1040

UBC Library Location
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Stephen Clarkson & Stepan Wood
A Perilous Imbalance: The Globalization of Canadian Law and Governance
Vancouver: UBC Press, 2010

UBC Library Location
Benjamin J. Richardson, Yves Le Bouthillier, Heather McLeod-Kilmurray & Stepan Wood, eds.
Climate Law and Developing Countries: Legal and Policy Challenges for the World Economy
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009

UBC Library Location
Benjamin J. Richardson, Yves Le Bouthillier, Heather McLeod-Kilmurray & Stepan Wood
“Introduction: Climate Law and Developing Countries” in Benjamin J. Richardson, Yves Le Bouthillier, Heather McLeod-Kilmurray & Stepan Wood, eds.
Climate Law and Developing Countries: Legal and Policy Challenges for the World Economy
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009
pp. 1-34

UBC Library Location
Stepan Wood
“Common Law Liability Relief” in Michael B. Gerrard, ed.
Brownfields Law and Practice: The Cleanup and Redevelopment of Contaminated Land
Newark: Matthew Bender, 2008
Stepan Wood & Lynn Johannson
“Six Principles for Integrating Non-Governmental Environmental Standards into Smart Regulation”
Full text: (2008) 46:2 Osgoode Hall L.J. 345-395

UBC Library Location
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Stephen Clarkson & Stepan Wood
“Canada's External Constitution and its Democratic Deficit”
in Oonagh E. Fitzgerald et al., eds., The Globalized Rule of Law: Relationships Between International and Domestic Law
Toronto: Irwin Law, 2006
pp. 97-124

UBC Library Location
Online Access (with full-text)
Benjamin J. Richardson & Stepan Wood, eds.
Environmental Law for Sustainability
Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2006

UBC Library Location
Benjamin J. Richardson & Stepan Wood
“Environmental Law for Sustainability”
in Benjamin J. Richardson & Stepan Wood, eds.
Environmental Law for Sustainability
Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2006
pp. 1-18

UBC Library Location
Jaye Ellis & Stepan Wood
“International Environmental Law”
in Benjamin J. Richardson & Stepan Wood, eds.
Environmental Law for Sustainability
Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2006
pp. 343-380

UBC Library Location
Stepan Wood
“Voluntary Environmental Codes and Sustainability”
in Benjamin J. Richardson & Stepan Wood, eds.
Environmental Law for Sustainability
Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2006
pp. 229-276

UBC Library Location
Stepan Wood
“Canada's 'Forgotten Forests': Or, How Ottawa is Failing Local Communities and the World in Peri-Urban Forest Protection”
(2004) 14 J Envtl L & Prac 217-251
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Stepan Wood
“Commentary: Toward a Counterdisciplinary Agenda for Research in International Law and International Relations”
in Canadian Council on International Law
The Measure of International Law: Effectiveness, Fairness and Validity: Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Canadian Council on International Law, Ottawa, October 24-26, 2002
The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2004
pp. 260-273

UBC Library Location
Online Access (with full-text)
Stepan Wood
“The Role of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Governing Environmental Conflict and Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries: Questions for Research”
in Beatriz Londoñ o Toro, ed.
Propriedad, Conflicto y Medio Ambiente
Bogotá: Universidad del Rosario, 2004
pp. 15-56
Online Access (with full-text)
Stepan Wood
“Green Revolution or Greenwash? Voluntary Environmental Standards, Public Law, and Private Authority in Canada”
in Law Commission of Canada,
New Perspectives on the Public-Private Divide
Vancouver: UBC Press, 2003
pp. 123-165

UBC Library Location
Online Access (with full-text)
Stepan Wood
“UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems”
in UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems
Oxford: EOLSS Publishers, 2003
Article No. 1.45.4.10
Stepan Wood
“Environmental Management Systems and Public Authority in Canada: Rethinking Environmental Governance”
Full text: (2002) 10:1 Buff. Envtl. L.J. 129-210
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Stepan Wood
“The High Price of Habitat Protection”
Full text: (2001) 27:3 Alt J 9-11
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Andrew S. Tulumello & Stepan Wood
“International Law and International Relations Theory: A New Generation of Interdisciplinary Scholarship ”
Full text: (1998) 92:3 Am. J. Int'l L. 367-397

UBC Library Location
Allard Research Commons
SSRN Paper
Stepan Wood
“Renegades and Vigilantes in Multilateral Environmental Regimes: Lessons of the 1995 'Turbot War'”
in Lawrence Susskind et al, eds.,
Innovations in International Environmental Negotiation
Cambridge: Harvard Program on Negotiation, 1997
pp. 184-200
wood profile

Organization Affiliations

  • Centre for Law and the Environment

Research Interests

  • Environmental law, natural resources, and climate change
  • Transnational law

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