Sustainability in business and company law: the desirable return of public regulation

The article, given the ambiguity of the term ‘‘sustainability’’, focuses on the so-called external sustainability and, especially, on the impact of the business activity on the environment. In this perspective, the development of European Union regulation is exposed, noting how from an approach initially limited to information alone and to the ‘‘delegation’’ to the (genuine or instrumental) sensitivity of private operators, there is a transition to a prescriptive approach in which the public regulator correctly resumes its irreplaceable role of balancing interests.