Chapter 8 explores how national governments can help multinational corporations seize emerging opportunities in the low-carbon transition. Building on the prior chapter’s discussion of governance and planning, capacity building, and incentives and regulations, the chapter examines how public policy in these domains can foster sustainable business opportunities. It highlights several specific policy instruments: climate-focused economic zones (governance and planning), green technology and innovation funds (capacity building), and public procurement and regulatory sandboxes (incentives and regulations). The chapter concludes by assessing how firms and governments can collaborate to generate mutually reinforcing climate outcomes, emphasizing public–private partnerships (PPPs) as key vehicles for innovation and risk-sharing. Case studies of Japan’s Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town, Norway’s Northern Lights CCS project, and California’s ARCHES hydrogen alliance illustrate distinct PPP models.

According to Section 14 of the Contract Act where a party has been ‘coerced’ to enter into a contract or has been induced to do so by the exercise of ‘undue influence’, there is an absence of free consent. Such a contract is voidable at the instance of the victim, that is, the party whose consent has been caused by the ‘coercion’ or the ‘undue influence’.

Coercion under Section 15 of the Contract Act is concerned with actions or threats made with the intention of causing a person's consent. Section 15 is thus focused on the process by which consent is obtained, and not on the actual outcome or bargain arrived at. By way of contrast, undue influence under Section 16 of the Contract Act takes into account the final bargain to a certain extent because it entails an examination of whether a party in a position to dominate the will of the other party has used that position to extract an ‘unfair advantage’. Despite these differences, it has been observed that the line between coercion and undue influence is ‘sometimes thin and it is possible to conceive of cases where the act might fall under both heads’.

The challenges courts have faced in relation to Sections 15 and 16 are different. In the case of coercion, the definition in Section 15 is quite clear but it is limited, and there is a question of whether it requires judicial amplification to cover instances of pressurising conduct that may not fit within the express statutory language. In the case of Section 16, the provision – after its amendment in 1899 – is quite widely cast and the challenge for the courts has been to set determinate boundaries.

In the remainder of this chapter, we address: (a) what constitutes coercion and undue influence, (b) the requirement of causation, and (c) the question of remedies.

Three points are worth making by way of background before proceeding further.

Chapter 1 introduces the central puzzle of the book: how multinational corporations confront the growing risks and opportunities of climate change. It establishes the urgency and global salience of the issue, situating the discussion within international business and political economy scholarship. The chapter reviews existing literature, identifies key knowledge gaps, and formulates the research questions that guide the study. It then presents the book’s overarching analytical framework, integrating resource dependence theory with a typology of climate risks and corporate response strategies. By linking firm-level decision-making to national capacity and international engagement, this introduction explains how the subsequent chapters contribute to theory and practice. It concludes by highlighting the book’s dual purpose: to advance academic understanding of business strategy under climate stress and to draw actionable lessons for policymakers and business leaders.

One type of remedy for breach of contract is to require that the breaching party do what he or she promised to do under the contract. So, in a contract for the sale of 100 kilograms of cardamom, if the breaching party is the recalcitrant seller, this type of remedy would involve an order that the seller provide the 100 kilograms of cardamom to the buyer. When this type of remedy is granted, the court requires that the breaching party actually carry out what was promised under the contract (physically provide the cardamom) as opposed to paying an amount of money which is meant to substitute for his or her non-performance (for instance, paying a sum equal to the difference between the contract price and the current market price for 100 kilograms of cardamom).

This type of ‘performance-based’ remedy is provided for in the Specific Relief Act 1963 (in this chapter, the ‘SRA’). The SRA authorises two varieties of ‘performancebased’ remedies: ‘specific performance’ (provided for in Part II, Chapter II of the SRA) and ‘injunctions’ (provided for in Part III, Chapters VII–VIII of the SRA). The remedy of specific performance only applies when there is a contractual promise to take positive action. An order that the defendant carry out that promised positive action is an order for ‘specific performance’. However, if the contractual promise is a negative promise, that is, a promise to refrain from taking particular action, an order prohibiting the defendant from taking the action which it promised not to carry out is described as an ‘injunction’ (and not as an order for specific performance). More specifically, injunctions that prevent a party from taking particular action are called ‘prohibitory injunctions’.

Many factors influence the perceptions, attitudes and behaviour of actors in co-management, from trust and perceptions of legitimacy to the timing and extent of participation. The chapter introduces and reviews concepts that have less extensively been applied to analyses of the co-management of renewable natural resources. These concepts are personal values, behaviour, social norms, identity and agency. The chapter draws on literature from social psychology and philosophy to identify key characteristics of each concept and identify what has been learnt from application of these concepts to relevant contexts to the co-management of renewable natural resources. The chapter concludes by identifying key and recurring themes, particularly related to the need to understand the social context of co-management, the role of social norms and the links between values, behaviour, identity and agency and the rights and pursuits of justice of Indigenous Peoples and local communities involved in co-management.

Chapter 2 examines the dual roles that multinational corporations (MNCs) play as both contributors to and potential mitigators of climate change. Framed around the competing race to the bottom and race to the top perspectives, the chapter explores how MNCs can both weaken and strengthen environmental governance. The first section reviews evidence of firms lobbying for weaker standards and relocating pollution-intensive operations to jurisdictions with lax regulation. The second considers how MNCs may instead diffuse clean technologies and practices through supply chains and host-country spillovers. The chapter argues that these divergent outcomes depend on a set of internal and external moderating factors. Internally, industry characteristics, firm capabilities, and consumer orientation shape corporate environmental behavior. Externally, national institutions, stakeholder pressures, international agreements, levels of economic development, and corruption influence whether MNCs produce downward or upward environmental convergence.

When a contract is breached, the innocent party usually suffers some loss. Its remedy is to sue for monetary compensation, that is, to sue for an award of ‘damages’. This remedy is governed by Section 73 of the Contract Act. Moreover, the contract itself may stipulate a particular sum to be paid in case of breach. The position with respect to this type of ‘agreed remedy’ is governed by Section 74 of the Contract Act. This chapter briefly discusses both of these remedies.

More specifically, it sets out certain general principles that apply to measuring and assessing loss, such as the date on which such assessment is to be made, the extent to which subsequent (post-breach) events may inform such assessment and the standard of certainty to be applied. The key ingredient of causation is also discussed. It further addresses two principles that limit the recovery of compensation: remoteness and the failure to mitigate losses. Finally, it deals with the limitations placed on the enforceability of ‘agreed remedies’ under Section 74 of the Contract Act.

MEASURING LOSS

Object of the exercise

The broad purpose of an award of damages is to improve the existing position of the innocent party and place it in the position which it would have occupied if the contract had been properly performed.

Take a contract concluded in November for the supply of 100 kilograms of cardamom by 1 January at a price of INR 1,000 per kilogram. By 1 January the market price has increased to INR 1,500 and the seller breaches the contract by refusing to supply any cardamom. The buyer is worse off than the counterfactual non-breach position in that: (a) it does not have 100 kilograms of cardamom and (b) in order to obtain 100 kilograms of cardamom it has to go back into the market and pay an increased price.

The book finishes with a concluding chapter that identifies and brings together key insights from the earlier chapters. From a review of these key insights, four cross-cutting themes are identified: co-management as process, the relevance of power, the context of co-management and co-management as social relationships. Following discussion of these themes, a new definition is offered for co-management, inspired by the centrality of social relationships to the foundational concepts of co-management. A conceptual framework elaborates on this definition and offers a guide for the analysis and practice of co-management, one that seeks to deliver on rights and justice, as well as shared goals, accountability and legitimacy. Implications of this new, or alternative, definition of, and perspective on, co-management for practising co-management are identified and an agenda for supportive research set out.

Indigenous boarding programs have long been framed as a response to the structural barriers faced by First Nations students from remote and regional communities in accessing secondary education. For many First Nations families, boarding schools represent a double-edged sword: an avenue for opportunity that also perpetuates colonial systems of dislocation and assimilation. This chapter critically examines the lived experiences of Indigenous students in boarding schools, foregrounding the voices of those most impacted – students, families and communities. It interrogates the systemic and cultural challenges faced by these students while celebrating the strength, adaptability and agency of First Nations peoples. Through an Indigenous lens, the chapter seeks to move beyond narratives of ‘success’ and ‘opportunity’, calling instead for culturally led and self-determined ways for boarding to support students who live away from home for schooling.

The conclusion addresses the three questions asked. (i) What are the powers of the EU to regulate unhealthy lifestyles and how have these powers been used to date? (ii) How does EU law balance the objective of building a market for unhealthy products with that of reducing and eliminating their consumption? (iii) How does EU law balance market uniformity with the diversity and scientific uncertainty associated with lifestyle practices? It argues that EU legislation in this field remains framed predominantly in economic terms. As a result, debate continues to revolve largely around the relationship between the internal market and scientific or public health concerns. The book concludes that future EU intervention should be accompanied by reforms to the constitutional framework of competence and by greater recognition of the political, moral and cultural dimensions of unhealthy lifestyles.

I have often been asked: How can mathematics be beautiful? This question is usually sparked by popular culture, such as the movie A Beautiful Mind or television shows that have popularised mathematics. For most of the inquirers, their experience with mathematics is so divorced from subjective statements such as ‘beautiful’ that they cannot fathom any connection between them. They have also been taught that mathematics is supposed to be objective – that is, transcending our own subjectivity (or bias) to find ‘the truth’. These are common perceptions of mathematics informed by our common experience with the teaching and learning of mathematics. This chapter explores such perceptions, questions notions such as objectivity and explores how these perceptions have positioned Indigenous people as mathematical learners. In essence, this chapter explores the connection between culture and mathematics – putting subjectivity back into mathematics and looking at how this can affect the teaching and learning of mathematics for Indigenous students. These new approaches also have implications for mathematics education in general, by allowing students to connect with mathematics through their own social and cultural backgrounds.