The Evolution of Compliance -From Equal Treatment to Acceptable Treatment in Global Governance

Makkos, Nándor (2026) The Evolution of Compliance -From Equal Treatment to Acceptable Treatment in Global Governance. Compliance & Governance Studies, Budapest. ISBN 978-615-02-6084-6 (Submitted)

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Abstract

This book develops a normative theory of compliance for contemporary governance systems. It argues that compliance has evolved beyond a technical mechanism of rule enforcement into a core institutional infrastructure that mediates between law, markets, technology, and organizational behavior. In an era shaped by artificial intelligence, global value chains, ESG obligations, and transnational liability regimes, compliance is no longer adequately assessed through formal legality alone. Instead, organizations are increasingly judged by whether their conduct remains socially, ethically, and institutionally acceptable. The central claim of the book is that modern compliance operates at a new normative threshold, which the book conceptualizes as acceptable treatment. This threshold goes beyond formal equality and minimum legal conformity and reflects a broader societal expectation of responsible, anticipatory, and trustworthy governance. The book situates compliance within a framework of anticipatory governance. Drawing on legal theory, organizational sociology, behavioral science, and technology governance, it demonstrates that sustainable compliance systems must account for cognitive limitations, ethical risk, algorithmic decision-making, and reputational capital. Rather than treating compliance as a defensive or reactive function, the book shows how compliance increasingly functions as a strategic driver of institutional resilience, legitimacy, and long-term competitiveness. Compliance is thus reframed as a forward-looking governance capability that enables organizations to manage uncertainty, prevent systemic failure, and maintain public trust in complex regulatory environments. A central contribution of the book lies in its integration of emerging regulatory challenges into a unified theoretical framework. It addresses artificial intelligence auditing, explainability, algorithmic accountability, and digital sovereignty not as isolated technical problems, but as manifestations of a broader shift in how legal responsibility is allocated in automated and transnational contexts. Similarly, the analysis of global value chains and sustainability due diligence demonstrates how compliance obligations now extend beyond organizational boundaries and traditional notions of legal personality. The book further develops a theory of post-violation and restorative compliance, showing how ethical internal investigations and trust-rebuilding mechanisms function as governance tools after institutional crises. The book is written for an international audience of legal scholars, governance researchers, regulators, and senior compliance professionals. While it assumes legal literacy, it avoids narrow doctrinalism and instead adopts an interdisciplinary approach that makes it suitable for advanced academic study as well as professional reference. The analysis is particularly timely in light of current regulatory developments, including the EU AI Act, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, ESG-driven capital allocation, and ongoing conflicts over data sovereignty and generative artificial intelligence. In this context, the book provides a coherent conceptual framework for understanding compliance as the normative operating system of modern governance. Ultimately, the book argues that justice and competitiveness are not opposing values, but mutually reinforcing dimensions of institutional design. Organizations capable of transforming regulatory constraints into ethical excellence are better positioned to achieve durable legitimacy and market leadership. The transition from formal equality toward acceptable treatment represents one of the most significant evolutionary processes in contemporary governance. By articulating this shift, the book offers both a theoretical contribution to compliance scholarship and a practical orientation for navigating the future of regulation.

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