Developing an Original Normative Framework for Corporate Sustainability Obligations in Nigerian Business Law

Corporate sustainability obligations, encompassing environmental, social, and governance responsibilities legally imposed on companies, are increasingly central to global business law reform, yet the theoretical foundations for imposing legally enforceable sustainability obligations on Nigerian corporations, as distinct from voluntary CSR, have not been systematically developed in the Nigerian legal scholarship. This study develops an original Normative Framework for Corporate Sustainability Obligations in Nigerian Law (NFCSO-NG), drawing on stakeholder theory, sustainable development law, constitutional environmental rights, and comparative corporate sustainability law from Germany, France, and South Africa. The NFCSO-NG articulates three original theoretical propositions: that corporations are constitutionally obligated to respect environmental rights under section 20 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, that the corporate governance framework's stakeholder orientation under CAMA 2020 provides a statutory basis for mandatory sustainability duties, and that the PIA 2021 host community trust model provides an existing legal architecture for scaling environmental and social obligations across sectors. The normative framework is developed through systematic doctrinal analysis, constitutional interpretation, and comparative analysis of 12 corporate sustainability legal models, supplemented by structured engagement with 35 legal scholars, corporate lawyers, environmental advocates, and corporate directors. The NFCSO-NG generates specific legislative proposals for a Nigerian Corporate Sustainability Act incorporating environmental due diligence, social impact disclosure, and board sustainability governance obligations, constituting an original contribution to the emerging field of sustainable business law in Nigeria.

Keywords: corporate sustainability, sustainability law, ESG obligations, stakeholder theory, Nigeria