The problem of the enterprise and the enterprise of law: Multinational enterprises as polycentric transnational regulatory space

In the multinational enterprise (MNE) one encounters entity, connections, and linkages, and functionally differentiated production chains. Each aspect of the MNE is partially and simultaneously subject to layers of regulatory governance. This chapter explores the effects of these regulatory interventions on shifting constructions of the MNE. To that effect it examines first the relationship between emerging transnational law and an objectified MNE. It then considers the way that the focus and context of transnational law shifts as the regulatory focus moves from MNE as object to the MNE as a set of linkages and connections, and then to the regulation of production through which is itself the object of MNE function. This reconsideration of the character of the MNE produces a substantial effect on the way in which transnational law is understood and applied, matching polycentricity in the construction of law with polycentricity in the construction of the MNE itself.