LAWS11539
Sustainable Finance and the Law
Dr. Longjie Lu
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Week 10
Corporate Green Bonds
Questions for Discussion
1. What factors may lead to greenwashing in the green bond market?
2. Are external review mechanisms sufficient for ensuring the authenticity of green bonds?
3. In your opinion, should the issuance and governance of green bonds be subject to more
stringent and mandatory regulations?
Essential Reading
Dirk Schoenmaker and Willem Schramade, Principles of Sustainable Finance (OUP 2019)
Chapter 9
Lloyd Freeburn and Ian Ramsay, ‘Green Bonds: Legal and Policy Issues’ (2020) 15(4) Capital
Markets Law Journal 418
Quinn Curtis et.al., ‘Green Bonds, Empty Promises’ (2023) 102(1) North Carolina Law
Review 131
Recommended Reading
Aaron Franklin, Structuring Sustainable Finance Transactions: A Practical Guide to the Legal
and Financial Considerations of Green Finance Instruments (Palgrave Macmillan 2025)
Chapters 3, 5, 6 and 8
Kevin M. Talbot, ‘What Does "Green" Really Mean?: How Increased Transparency and
Standardisation Can Grow the Green Bond Market’ (2017) 28 Villanova Environmental Law
Journal 127
Agnieszka Paulina Smoleńska, ‘The Constitutive Role of Law in Sustainable Finance’ (2025)
Industrial Law Journal available here
Stephen Kim Park, ‘Investors as Regulators: Green Bonds and the Governance Challenges of
the Sustainable Finance Revolution’ (2018) 54(1) Stanford Journal of International Law 1
Jakub Demski et.al., ‘Growth of the Green Bond Market and Greenhouse Gas Emissions’ BIS
Quarterly Review (March 2025) available here
Torsten Ehlers and Frank Packer, ‘Green Bond Finance and Certification’ BIS Quarterly
Review (September 2017) available here
1
Cristina M. Banahan, ‘The Bond Villains of Green Investment: Why an Unregulated Securities
Market Needs Government to Lay Down the Law’ (2017) 43(3) Vermont Law Review 841
John Patrick Hunt, ‘Green Bond Reporting’ (2024) 1 Columbia Business Law Review 201
Luca Enriques et.al., ‘Sustainability Assurance’ (2025) ECGI Law Working Paper No.
871/2025 available here
Diletta Lenzi, ‘Corporate Social Bonds: A Legal Analysis’ (2021) 18(2) European Company
and Financial Law Review 291
Sergio Gilotta, ‘Green bonds: A Legal and Economic Analysis’ in Thilo Kuntz et.al., Research
Handbook on Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (Elgar 2024) Chapter 10
Stephen Park, ‘Green Bonds and Beyond: Debt Financing as a Sustainability Driver’ in Beate
Sjåfjell and Christopher M. Bruner (eds), Cambridge Handbook of Corporate Law, Corporate
Governance and Sustainability (CUP 2019) Chapter 42
Andrea Maino, ‘Financing the Energy Transition: The Role, Opportunities and Challenges of
Green Bonds’ (2022) Oxford Institute for Energy Studies Paper available here
Jonathan R. Povilonis, ‘Contracting for ESG: Sustainability-Linked Bonds and a New Investor
Paradigm’ (2022) 77(3) Business Lawyer 625
Caroline Flammer, ‘Corporate Green Bonds’ (2021) 142(2) Journal of Financial Economics
499
